Throughout the United States, more than one-third of children don't live with their biological fathers, and about 17 million of those children don't live with any father at all. Of those, roughly 40 percent haven't seen their fathers in the last year. The over 500 Father's Rights organizations are trying in a variety of ways to change these statistics because they believe that fathers are necessary to the intellectual, psychological and emotional well- being of all children. "Family values" groups encourage long lasting stable, marriages and tough divorce laws to increase the number of two- parent households. Some organizations focus on reasonable child support and visitation, as well as creative joint custody arrangements to …show more content…
The 1980's saw the emergence of a new and powerful father hood movement, focused on discrimination in divorce laws and unfair child support orders. 1986, The National Convention for Men, an umbrella group for 36 organizations representing roughly 6,000 men, centered their attention of the issues of child support and custody rights. The men were outraged by the gender bias men suffer in courts, with 87 to 90 percent of divorce cases giving sole custody to the mother with our without visitation for the father . They emphasized that the feminist movement had changed parenting roles and equalized parental involvement, and demanded that custody laws be changed to reflect this. The president of the NCM, Peter Cyr, urged the men to fight against isolation and alienation from their children. In 51 percent of sole- custody arrangements, the children saw their father less than once a year, according to the Commission on Child and Family Welfare. The NCM supported joint custody, which was a key issue of fledgling Father's Rights movement and is still central plank of the father's rights platform today.
In the late 1980's and early 1990's, criticism of single mothers began to mount. The number of two parent families dropped over 11 percent from 1970 to 1980 and continued to drop into the 90's. Between 1969 and 1992, the percent of AFDC cases involving children born to unwed mothers grew by over 20 percentage points,
Demographically, over 90% of the participants strongly agreed that fatherhood is crucial in our society. A little over 47% of fathers, that encouragement from the mothers of their children matters because of the obstacles they faced with finance, and their duties on the job. The final results of marital status statistics is over 80% married fathers, nine percent divorced, and six percent never married. One surprising statistic was 90% cohabitate with the mother and focal child (Glenn & Popenoe, 2006).
All of the statistics are in relation to fatherhood or the lack thereof. It relates fatherhood to a number of consequences left on the child or children. All of the sources used seemed to be cited correctly. The statistics seem to all have reliable, scholarly sources of information.
It is during this time a father needs to be present to father, shape and mold his children (Jones, Kramer, Kim A., Teresa L., Armitage, Tracey, Williams, Keith, as cited in Wallerstein, 1980, 1987). On their 10 year follow up, Wallerstein and Kelley found that regardless of the time spent with a father or not, the father continued to be a significant presence psychologically to adolescents, particularly to boys (Jones et al., as cited in Wallerstein, Kelley, 1974). On Kelley and Wallerstein’s 25 year follow up of their now adult participants in their longitudinal study, they have found that the effects of fatherlessness and divorce during their adolescents were long lasting. The participants in the study by Wallerstein et al. (2000) noted that “The impact of divorce hits them most cruelly as they go in search of love, sexual intimacy, and commitment” (p. 299). These same participants also stated in an interview that they had anxiety issues about relationships and intimacy problems into adulthood (Jones et al., as cited in Wallerstein et al., 2000). Wallerstein et al. (2000) participants of the research also stated that they had resentment towards their parents, particularly the fathers who were seen “selfish and faithless” (p. 300).
Due to problems arising out of bitter divorces, custody, and support battles fathers are ostracize out of their children’s life. Fathers are often looked at as the bad person when things go wrong and being the blame. Fathers are just as responsible for the child being born as the mother. Over the years fathers continue to fight for equal rights, mothers are looked at as the victims and often make false statements about the fathers to suit their own selfish needs. Accusations of sexual and child abuse by mothers of the noncustodial fathers are often found to be untrue.
About four in every ten children born in America in 2008 were born outside of marriage, and they are disproportionately minority and poor. “Only about 6 percent of college-educated mothers’ births are nonmarital versus 60 percent of those of high school dropouts” (5). Scholars responded to this by studying single-parent families.
Women have been alienated from their rights as workers and citizens but also have been deprived from fulfilling their roles as wives and mothers because they don’t have political representation. The concept of militant motherhood explains that because women have been alienated from almost all their rights their will to thrive as mothers has motivated them to demand the equal rights they deserve. Therefore women united their collective identities as wives and mothers and demanded the political representation they deserved as citizens (Richard Stahler-Sholk et al, 145). This concept operates within women’s social movements because since they all share one collective identity regardless of what they are demanding they are all interconnected by
both the House and Senate 's floor do not come from Planned Parenthood themselves. As stated by Planned Parenthood, the organization does not keep track of the total number of pregnant women it serves or the total number of services they provided to those pregnant women. “The figure comes from adding together the numbers Planned Parenthood did provide for its abortion procedures (327,653), prenatal services (18,684) and the adoption referrals (1,800) and then dividing the number of abortions by the cumulative figure (348,217).” (“Planned Parenthood’s Services”) After calculating that false 94 percent, it is not only used by Senators and Representatives to gain ground to defund Planned Parenthood, it is also used by other anti-abortion groups. The issue with the arithmetic to result with the 94 percent is that they are leaving out other essential services provided by Planned Parenthood.
For various reasons, many children in the United States are living without their fathers in their homes or absent from their lives entirely. This is an issue all across the world and the children are having to deal with the disadvantages caused by the lack of support from their fathers. This issue has a significant effect on society and can be viewed and interpreted from the three sociological perspectives. As a result of many studies, it was found that children raised in father absent homes almost universally experience disadvantages such as: worse health, poorer academic achievement, and a less enjoyable educational experience. There are many variables that need to be taken into effect when considering
Nearly half of minors living in the U.S are living in a home with heterosexual parents in their first marriage. In 1990, there were 1.2 million out-of-wedlock births out of 4 million total. These high rates of marital instability can have significant implications for the father-child relationship. Furstenberg and Harris (Furstenberg & Harris, 1992, p. 104) claim that African-American fathers, who have become fathers during adolescence, have shifted their focus from being the primary financial supporter to becoming a willing parent, more involved with their child’s growth and development (Furstenberg & Harris, 1992, p. 199). In this paper, I will propose a possible explanation to why young fathers may
Regardless of whether or not that perception is true, the need exists for attorneys that are passionate about making sure fathers understand their rights and that fathers do not give up based on their belief that family court judges view mothers more favorably when determining custody (Spradlin, 2015). Divorce and child custody matters are particularly emotional because of the private, personal matters that are at issue. The firm receives many calls from fathers who feel as though their attorneys did not adequately represent them and that there exists a conspiracy within family courts and that no matter what, the Court will never rule in a father’s favor. This idea is not true, and the attorneys of FPRLC want to change that ideology for fathers (Walk,
In chapter 10 of Brave New World we see the mentality of fatherhood in Brave New World vs. the reservations view. It is a contrast view from one another. When John finally meets Tomakin or the director for the first time we see him fall at his feet in a full room of Alpha-Plus. The act in itself shows us the reverence that John had towards his father. When he was in the reservation he dreamed of having a father figure, someone who would show him the way of life, but instead he was seen as an outcast. The only father figured he ever knew was the old Mitisma. He showed John how to work the clay and later showed him how to make the bow. Mitisma gave John hope, and a small glimpse of what a father does. He expected when he met Tomakin something
There is no denial that fathers are integral members of our society. According to the US. Census Beurea, 1 in 4 children in the country live without fathers. This lack of domestic stability leaves them disproportionately susceptible to substance abuse, gang violence, premature parenthood, poverty, and suicide. The question then remains: “What defines a father?”.
In the 1950s, fathers were considered the breadwinners of the family, as a result, they were rarely home and when they were their role in the family was to discipline children. There wasn’t a drastic change in the messages of fatherhood from the 1950s to the 1960s. Although we began to observe fathers more actively involved in the caring of their children they were still not the primary caregivers. An example is the first episode of Leave it to Beaver in which Opie’s father is constantly trying to cheer Opie. This is an indication that fathers were beginning to be compassionate towards their children. The majority of children with absent mothers were raised by nannies while fathers continued to be the breadwinners. Nonetheless, the messages about fatherhood in the 1970s were different from the 50s and 60s in that single fathers began becoming the primary caregivers of their children—drifting away from the idea that women are the only sex capable of caring for children. The current media entertainment I consume certainly gives messages about fatherhood as well. Fathers are definitely involved with their children than has ever been portrayed on television before. Nonetheless, fathers tend to approach their daughters and sons differently. Fathers tend to be more gentle with their daughters and vice versa with their
To the majority of people, joint custody sounds like the best choice for the child but there is a bad side to it. Disagreeing with joint custody does not always mean the child should only be with their mothers; there are many fathers that are loving and wonderful parents. However there are many cases of fathers causing problems and hurting their children by fighting for custody for the wrong reasons. A study has been done that shows the reasons for a group of fathers to get involved in a custody battle. The main reasons were to punish their wives, they economically and psychologically refused to subside their ex-wives, and they had a patriarchal concept of the male as the “Superior” parent (Chesler). Even though fathers fought for custody
Cohen, S. R. Zeedyk, S. M. Tipton, L. A. Rodas, N. V. Blacher, J. “Fathers of children with or without ID: understanding long-term psychological symptoms,” Journal of Intellectual Disability Research. Apr2016, Vol. 60 Issue 4, p295-307.