Gender Bias in Custody and Family Court

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

Gender bias has been an important topic that many people have been debating. Usually, gender bias is brought up when looking into pay gaps and professional experience. One very big gender gap that is also often debated about is for family court. When parents enter the family court and have to fight for custody, many say that there is a very big gender bias, and the father has a harder time obtaining custody. There is a bias that children will grow better with mothers, therefore, courts often try to listen to the mother’s side of the story more than the father, due to this gender gap. There have been previous cases where the fathers also sue the court due to this problem. For example, some research shows that almost 90% of the time women would go in favor with higher custody payments. This research will look into the different cases where the gender gap played a big role in discriminating against the father. This is an important factor to look at, as gender bias must be demolished, and both parents must have an equal opportunity at court.

Author

• Soohoon Sunny Lee, Stoney Brook School