Child Support Queens and Disappointing Dads: Gender and Child Support Compliance

Abstract

Despite increased spending on child support enforcement in the United States over the past 30 years, child support collections remain around 40 percent. Child support is a gendered phenomenon, typically involving a transfer of funds from noncustodial fathers to custodial mothers in most cases. We argue that new norms of separated fatherhood and motherhood may contribute to low rates of child support compliance. An analysis of 21 in-depth interviews with members of separated families about the meaning of child support payments reveals two controlling images of gendered parenting—the child support queen and the disappointing dad—that hold single mothers responsible for children’s economic as well as emotional well-being and evaluate separated fathers mostly on their emotional involvement with children. Because these gendered expectations downplay the importance of noncustodial fathers’ financial contributions and question custodial mothers’ entitlement to receive child support, they reinforce gender inequality in separated families and may contribute to low rates of child support collection.