NATIONAL ATTITUDES REGARDING GENDER BIAS IN CHILD CUSTODY CASES

Abstract

Recent changes in family law have mandated equal treatment in child custody cases. Sweys of 4,579 attorneys and judges from four states, deemed to be nationally representative, were used to discover whether attorneys or judges perceive any favoritism toward mothers’ or fathers’ claims in the awarding of custody of children. Whereas attorneys, particularly males, perceive that mothers continue to be favored over fathers in custody cases, judges do not share this opinion. Within the past 15 years, “forty-two of the fifty states . . . have established some form of task force or committee to study gender issues” (Wilker, 1989, p. 14). Many of these studies have included surveys of judges and attorneys regarding their attitudes toward the existence of gender bias in the handling of child custody cases in their court systems. “These task forces have turned out to be more than a collection of stare specijic data [italics added] on gender issues in the courts. Rather they have reinforced the idea that needed reforms will be the result of self-scrutiny from within the court system” (Wilker, 1989, p. 14). The aim of this study is to analyze the results of several of the existing state task force reports to provide a national perspective regarding attitudes toward gender bias in child custody cases. It concludes with some general policy recommendations to state court systems that might help to eliminate perceptions of gender bias that may continue to exist. Initially, we reviewed all the publicly available state bar association studies of gender bias to determine if the same, or similar, questions and response categories were used by several states. We prepared a spreadsheet and examined the information to determine if state-specific analyses could be expanded to provide a national perspective on the issues. We did not intend to alter the content or meaning of any question or response category, we did not preselect any questions, nor did we desire to alter any state-specific analysis. Rather, our intent was to broaden the scope of each individual state’s examination to draw conclusions across states. The spreadsheet identified those questions and response categories for items that were identical, or very similar, in surveys from the states of Maryland, Missouri, Texas, and Washington. These items are included in this article. The similarity in questions and