Separated fathers and the ‘fathers’ rights’ movement

Abstract

Separated fathers often feel profound grief, distress, and anger at the end of their relationships with their partners and their children. Some participate in 'fathers' rights' groups, a movement which claims to advocate on behalf of men and fathers who are the victims of discrimination and injustice in the Family Court and elsewhere. Yet such groups may do little to help fathers heal or to build or maintain ongoing and positive relationships with their children. Some men do find support in these groups, but they also may be incited into anger, blame, and destructive strategies of litigation.Using a framework of three domains of impact -fathers' responses to and recovery from separation, fathers' relations with children, and fathers' relations with their expartners -this paper proposes that fathers' rights groups are detrimental for fathers themselves. However, other responses to separated fathers are more constructive.

Masculinizing Care? Gender, Ethics of Care, and Fathers’ Rights Groups

“…However, FRGs are increasing and becoming “increasingly vocal” (Collier 2010, 120; see also Collier 2013; Crowley, 2009, 2013; Hacker 2013; Rosen et al 2009). FRGs exist in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and the United States (Basu 2015; Busch et al 2014; Collier and Sheldon 2006; Crowley 2013; Dragiewicz 2011; Flood 2012; Hacker 2013).…”

‘I’d just lose it if there was any more stress in my life’: Separated Fathers, Fathers’ Rights and the News Media

“…Yet, as a number of scholars have pointed out, ties between fathers and their children seldom become an issue for men until these relationships are threatened by separation and/or divorce (Crowley 2009;Flood 2012;Rhoades 2006;Smart andNeale 1999a, 1999b). It is at this point that some fathers take umbrage at a gender division of labour which typically sees them act as secondary carers of their children, and at risk of occupying a marginal position in their children's lives, because of what they perceive to be the vindictive actions of mothers backed up by a biased family law system (Collier 2006;Crowley 2009;Davis 2004;Flood 2012;Kaye and Tolmie 1998).…”

“…It is at this point that some fathers take umbrage at a gender division of labour which typically sees them act as secondary carers of their children, and at risk of occupying a marginal position in their children's lives, because of what they perceive to be the vindictive actions of mothers backed up by a biased family law system (Collier 2006;Crowley 2009;Davis 2004;Flood 2012;Kaye and Tolmie 1998). Thus, the fathers' rights movement is fundamentally concerned with the reassertion of paternal claims over off-spring in the wake of parental separation and/or divorce.…”

“…2 However, there has been a normative shift toward shared care in New Zealand over the last 15 years, as evidenced by many of the cases that go through the family court system Gavey 2010a, 2010b) Notwithstanding the rise of a pro-father culture within family courts across the West, fathers' rights groups remain critical of the gender power relationships they believe structures postseparation parenting, and the bias towards mothers they believe characterises family law. Within the 'injustice frame' constructed by the fathers' rights movement, fathers -rather than mothers -are the victims of family law (Boyd 2003(Boyd , 2004(Boyd , 2006Collier 2006;Flood 2004Flood , 2010Flood , 2012Kaye and Tolmie 1998;Rhoades 2006;Smart andNeale 1999a, 1999b). Based on this tenet, fathers are victims of false allegations of domestic violence and/or child abuse by mothers; they are victims of judicial decisions that privilege mothers' care time over fathers'.…”

State Antifeminism

“…Yet as our interviewees described it, masculinism does more than simply demand resources for men; it criticizes women in general and feminists in particular, and sometimes directly targets feminists with insults and death threats, women's organizations with administrative complaints and harassment, break-ins and vandalism, and feminist events with threats and disruptions (Blais 2012;Dupuis-Déri 2013;Saint-Pierre 2008). Groups of divorced and separated fathers make up the vanguard of the masculinist movement, which is also the case in Australia (Flood 2010(Flood , 2012, North America (Boyd 2004(Boyd , 2008Crowley 2008;Dragiewicz 2011;Ruth 2008), and various West-European countries (Palma 2008), especially Great Britain (Jordan 2009(Jordan , 2013Mitchell and Goody 1997). Thus, the views expressed by Belgian and Québécois feminists on state antifeminism will be interpreted while keeping in mind the impact of what must be seen as a mobilized masculinist countermovement that reaches across jurisdictions.…”