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Here is an important quote from the analysis below:

These findings suggest that postdivorce child care and custody can be influenced by gender-related characteristics traditionally, and stereotypically, associated with women. Nurturant fathers who care for their children, who can "articulate their needs for intimacy and emotional connectedness," have also been seen as ". . . the next necessary phase in the continuing feminist transformation of patriarchal culture for the benefit of men as well as women" (Silverstein, 1996, p. 4). In this regard, gender-related insufficiencies have been seen as perpetuated by the unequal roles of mothers a nd fathers in child rearing (e.g., Baumrind, 1980). The present findings suggest that if fathers better evidenced positive feminine qualities, stereotypically associated with mothers as primary child care providers, and became increasingly involved as nurturant caretakers for their young children, they would be perceived as more appropriate to receive custody and to provide care for their children in the aftermath of divorce than fathers with stereotypic male characteristics.

This article should be read along with another article and book review touching on a similar theme: halving_it_all.htm  

Basically, what all this means is that to prevail in court with respect to gaining greater parenting time, fathers need to stress their feminine contributions, not their masculine contributions, or alternatively, stress both, with an emphasis on the feminine qualities they have managed to learn to contribute.

Does ANCPR think this is right or good?  No.  However, this is a tactical matter.  It is pragmatic, given the realities of today's world.   Fathers: ignore these realities at your peril.

Mothers' and Fathers' Gender-Role Characteristics: The Assignment of Postdivorce Child Care and Custody [1].

Charles D. Hoffman [2]

Adults (151 female, 130 male; 17.4% African American/Black, 48% Caucasian, 22.8% Latino/Hispanic, 11.7% "other") assigned postdivorce parental care and custody for four combinations of traditional/nontraditional mothers and fathers described in vignettes of divorcing parents. Parental gender characteristics influenced the assignment of parental care and child custody to divorcing mothers and fathers described in the scenarios and interacted with child gender. Across scenarios, female participants assigned more parental care and custody to mothers than did male participants. When feminine qualities were paired with masculine qualities, greater custody was assigned to the parent described with feminine characteristics (whether a father or mother) than when that parent was described with masculine characteristics. The role of feminine gender characteristics for child custody and care was discussed with regard to maternal primacy and possible changes for father involvement in the aftermath of divorce.

The primacy of mothers' parental role in children's lives is perhaps best indicated in the aftermath of divorce. The overwhelming majority of children live with their mothers after divorce (Glick, 1988), while fathers' contact and involvement with their children too often, unfortunately, diminish dramatically (e.g., Stephens, 1996). Mothers are often seen as better suited than fathers to meet the needs of their young children, and this "tender-years presumption" has frequently been applied in support of assigning primary physical and legal custody of children to their mothers (Maccoby & Mnookin, 1992; Warshak, 1996). Another rationale for mothers receiving custody is that they usually maintain primary responsibility for daily child care in most intact families, even when both parents are employed (Biernat & Wortman, 1991; Hochschild, 1989). Thus, maternal custody reflects a continuation of what is seen as a mother's role as her children's primary parent (Maccoby & Mnookin, 1992; Warshak, 1996). The dramatic d ifferences between mother and father involvement with their children after divorce also reflect the cultural stereotype that mothers are a child's primary parent because they are "naturally" more capable caregivers than fathers (Silverstein, 1996).

Certainly, men are capable of providing effective parenting for their children and their parental involvement, both in intact families and following divorce, has a positive impact on their children's development (Biller, 1993; Hoffman, 1995; Lamb, 1997). As it would seem that persons of both genders are capable of caring for a child, the fact that almost 9 of 10 mothers have custody following divorce reveals a clear gender bias (e.g., Silverstein, 1996). That this bias reflects society's general preference for maternal custody is indicated by the fact that approximately 90% of these custody cases are settled out of court (Warshak, 1996).

Perhaps the assignment of custody and child care in the aftermath of divorce is related, in part, to the gender-related characteristics traditionally, and stereotypically, associated with women and men. Eagly (1987) proposed that gender differences and gender stereotypes form the roles women and men play. Because women are typically the primary child care providers, they are stereotyped as more nurturing, sensitive, and caring than men, and thus, they also take on more of these qualities as a result of their caretaking role.

The present study was designed to determine whether assignments of postdivorce parental responsibility and child custody would be affected by the differential attribution of either traditional or nontraditional gender characteristics to divorcing mothers and fathers. When a father is described as having characteristics stereotypically assigned to women (or mothers) and, thus, associated with child care, he should be assigned greater postdivorce parental responsibility and child custody than a father described with traditionally masculine attributes, when paired with a woman described with nontraditional (i.e., stereotypically masculine) attributes. Conversely, a mother described with nontraditional (i.e., masculine) characteristics would be assigned less postdivorce parental responsibility and child custody than a traditional (feminine) mother, when paired with a nontraditional (i.e., stereotypically feminine) father. It was anticipated that mothers would be assigned more parental responsibility and child cu stody when divorcing parents were both described with characteristics traditionally and stereotypically associated with their respective genders than when both were described with nontraditional characteristics.

It was expected that sons would be assigned more paternal care and custody than daughters (see Fox & Kelly, 1995; Starrels, 1994). Finally, recent evidence that male and female evaluators favor the parent of their own gender in custody evaluations (Bradshaw & Hinds, 1997) suggested that female participants would assign more custody and parental responsibility to mothers than would male participants.

METHOD

Participants

Of 350 questionnaire packets distributed, 281 were completed by 151 female and 130 male participants who ranged from 18 to 75 years of age (M = 32.3 years, SD = 11.4 years). Using a random assignment procedure, participants completed and returned questionnaires, assessing their custody assignments for sons (143 of those returned, 78 from females and 65 from males) or for daughters (138 of those returned, 73 from females and 65 from males). Volunteers were solicited from two local universities, two community colleges, community organizations (e.g., churches), and public settings (e.g., parks).

A total of 135 of the participants (48%) indicated that they were Caucasian, 49 African American/Black (17.4%), 64 Latino/Hispanic (22.8%), 9 Native American (3.2%), 6 Asian (2.1%), and 18 "other" (6.4%). Overall, 40 participants (18.1%) reported having a high school diploma or less education, 178 (63.3%) had some college/an associate's degree, and 52 (18.5%) had a bachelor's degree or higher. A total of 165 (49%) indicated that they were not currently enrolled in college, and 116 (41%) reported that they were enrolled, at least part-time. Participant's reports of their current marital status was as follows: 105 (37.4%) indicated that they were married, 101 (35.9%) reported never being married, 37 (13.2%) reported being divorced and 14 (5%) indicated that they were divorced and remarried, 20 (7.1%) reported living with a significant other, and 4 (1.4%) reported that they were widowed. Finally, 175 (62.3%) of the participants reported having a child or children, and 100 (35.6%) participants reported not havin g any children.

Design and Scenarios

A 2 X 2 x 4 mixed design was employed. Participant gender and child gender were both between groups variables. The within-groups variable consisted of four variations of father-mother gender characteristic pairs. Participants responded to a seven-page questionnaire packet, including four scenarios and associated rating scales (as well as a cover/consent letter, a demographic instrument, and a debriefing letter). They were randomly assigned to evaluate postdivorce parenting and custody for a "young (4-to 6-year-old) daughter (or son)" on each of the four possible combinations of a traditional or nontraditional mother and father pair (nontraditional mother-nontraditional father, traditional mother-nontraditional father, nontraditional mother-traditional father, and traditional mother- traditional father).

For each scenario, parent pairs were described as divorcing, living in the same town as one another, and both having bachelor's degrees. In addition, mother and father stimuli were each described as either traditional or nontraditional, using a traditional or a nontraditional occupation and two personal gender-related characteristics for each. For control purposes, names used for parents were selected following Kasof's (1993) recommendations, traditional and nontraditional occupations were selected from Beggs and Doolittle (1993), and positive male and female traditional and nontraditional gender characteristics were derived from the work of Bem (1974) and Spence, Helmreich, and Stapp (1975).

An example description for a traditional father and a traditional mother pair was as follows: "The father, Brian, works as an electrician and his friends describe him as independent and assertive. The mother, Karen, is a nurse and is described by her friends as gentle and affectionate." A nontraditional father and nontraditional mother were described, "Gary, the father, works as an elementary school teacher. He is described by his friends as warm and soft-spoken. Barbara, the mother, is described by her friends as being active and as a leader. She works as a sales manager." Four versions of each of these parent pair target stimuli, using different combinations of names, occupations, and characteristics, were used. In all, 16 versions of the vignettes were utilized.

Measures

Each description was presented on one of four consecutive pages, along with the four items on which participants were asked to divide postdivorce parenting and custody for the child between the mother and the father described. For each divorcing mother--father pair, participants responded to the four items using a 5-point scale that ranged from (1) 100% for father and 0% for mother to (5) 0% for father and 100% for mother. Intermediary points for the scale were (2) 75% for father, 25% for mother, (3) 50% for each parent as the midpoint, and (4) 25% for father and 75% for mother. The four items used to evaluate the division of parenting and postdivorce custody for the child were "Which parent should have primary physical custody (i.e., which parent should the child live with)?" "Which parent should have primary legal custody (i.e., the right and obligation to make decisions about the child's upbringing)?" "Approximate the percentage of hours per week the child will spend with each parent" and "Which parent sh ould have everyday parental care responsibility?" A Post-Divorce Parenting/Custody Scale was created using these four items (Cronbach's [alpha] = .93).

RESULTS

A 2 X 2 X 4 mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out on the mean Parenting/Custody Scale scores (higher mean scores were indicative of greater assignment of children to maternal parenting and custody). The within factor was parent traditionality (the four variations of mother--father gender characteristic pairs) and the between factors in this analysis were participant gender and child gender. The results of this analysis [3] indicated a significant main effect for parent traditionality, [F(3,831) = 26.27, p [less than].001]. The means and standard deviations for each of the parent traditionality conditions were as follows: mother traditional--father traditional, M = 3.40, SD = .69; mother traditional--father nontraditional, M = 3.28, SD = .67; mother nontraditional--father traditional, M = 3.30, SD = .70; and mother nontraditional--father nontraditional, M = 3.06, SD = .81. This analysis also revealed a significant parent traditionality X child gender interaction [F(3,831) = 4.90, p [less than].01 ]. The means and standard deviations for obtained Parenting/Custody Scale scores for daughters and sons for the four variations of the parent traditionality variable are indicated in Table I. The overall analysis also obtained a significant main effect for participant gender [F(1,277) = l3.27, P[less than].001], with female participants assigning more parental responsibility and child custody to mothers (M = 3.38, SD = .68) than did male participants (M = 3.13, SD .73).

Pairwise comparisons of the means for sons versus daughters for each parenting pair revealed no significant differences within any of the four variations of the parent traditionality factor. To examine further the results, two separate one-way repeated measures of parent traditionality were conducted and revealed significant differences for daughters [F(3,411) = 10.78, P[less than].001] and for sons [F(3,426) l8.78, P[less than].001], respectively. The results of post hoc examination of the means for the parent traditionality variable, for sons and daughters, respectively, are indicated in Table I.

DISCUSSION

As expected, when divorcing parent pairs were described with traditional, gender-congruent characteristics stereotypically associated with mothers and fathers, mothers were assigned more postdivorce child care and custody than when both parents were described with nontraditional characteristics. Regardless of child gender, when parental gender roles were reversed participants were more likely to be even-handed in their assignations of parental care and custody than when parent pairs were described traditionally. Whether a parent described was a father or a mother, when traditionally feminine qualities were paired with traditional masculine qualities greater postdivorce parental care and custody was obtained for the parent described with the traditionally feminine characteristics than when that parent was described with traditionally masculine characteristics. That these gender qualities, rather than a parent's gender alone, were found to influence child custody and care assignments suggests that people perce ive characteristics traditionally associated with one gender or the other as malleable rather than fixed.

Daughters were assigned more to the custodial and parental care of mothers when the parents were both described with masculine characteristics than when both were described with feminine characteristics. Sons were assigned more to mothers when the parents were both described with feminine characteristics than when both were described with masculine characteristics. Perhaps participants saw a strong, competent model of the same gender as important for girls and that boys would benefit from a warm and nurturing father. Further research is needed to clarify these relationships.

As anticipated, female participants assigned more child care and custody to mothers than did male participants. This finding is consistent with research indicating that custody evaluators tend to assign more custody to a parent of their own gender (Bradshaw & Hinds, 1997). The expectancy that sons would be assigned more postdivorce paternal care and custody than daughters was not supported. As child gender was treated as a between-groups variable in the present study, it is possible that this was, in part, a function of the design employed.

As noted, consistent with their traditional roles, mothers do most of the primary care taking for young children postdivorce. The personal characteristics associated with a traditional mother are seen as more consistent with the provision of care giving for a young child than are traditional masculine qualities, as they positively influenced the assignment of child care and custody of daughters and sons in the present study. These findings suggest that postdivorce child care and custody can be influenced by gender-related characteristics traditionally, and stereotypically, associated with women. Nurturant fathers who care for their children, who can "articulate their needs for intimacy and emotional connectedness," have also been seen as ". . . the next necessary phase in the continuing feminist transformation of patriarchal culture for the benefit of men as well as women" (Silverstein, 1996, p. 4). In this regard, gender-related insufficiencies have been seen as perpetuated by the unequal roles of mothers a nd fathers in child rearing (e.g., Baumrind, 1980). The present findings suggest that if fathers better evidenced positive feminine qualities, stereotypically associated with mothers as primary child care providers, and became increasingly involved as nurturant caretakers for their young children, they would be perceived as more appropriate to receive custody and to provide care for their children in the aftermath of divorce than fathers with stereotypic male characteristics.

(1.) The authors would like to express their appreciation to H. Fonosch, Y. Hunter, S. Leach, K. Scannell, C. Wagner, and S. Walker for their assistance in gathering data for this study. The authors also offer a special note of gratitude to Dr. Gloria Cowan for her invaluable assistance in helping the authors respond to reviewers' editorial comments.

(2.) To whom correspondence should be addressed at Department of Psychology, California State University, San Bernardino, California 92407. e-mail: choffman@wiley.csusb.edu.

(3.) Four separate ANOVAs, each examining one of the four items comprising the Parenting/Custody Scale as a dependent variable, obtained similar results to the overall Scale ANOVA reported: a main effect for parent traditionality, an interaction of parent traditionality and child gender, and a main effect of participant gender.

REFERENCES

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Bem, S. L. (1974). The measurement of psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, 155-162.

Biernat, M., & Wortman, C. B. (1991). Sharing of home responsibilities between professionally employed women and their husbands. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 844-860.

Biller, H. B. (1993). Fathers and families. Westport, CT: Auburn House.

Bradshaw, E. R., & Hinds, R. W. (1997). The impact of client and evaluator gender on custody evaluations. Family & Conciliation Courts Review, 35, 317-335.

Eagly, A. H. (1987). Sex differences in social behavior: A social role interpretation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Fox, G. L., & Kelly, R. F. (1995). Determinants of child custody arrangements at divorce. Journal of Marriage & the Family, 57, 693-708.

Glick, P. C. (1988). The role of divorce in the changing family structure: Trends and variations. In S. A. Wochik & P. Karoly (Eds.), Children of divorce: Empirical perspectives on adjustment (pp. 3-34). New York: Gardner Press.

Hochschild, A. (1989). The second shift. New York: Viking Penguin.

Hoffman, C. D. (1995). Pre-and post-divorce father-child relationships and child adjustment: Noncustodial fathers' perspectives. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 23, 3-20.

Kasof, J. (1993). Sex bias in the naming of stimulus persons. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 140-163.

Lamb, M. E. (1997). Fathers and child development: An introductory overview and guide. In M. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development, 3rd ed. pp. (1-18). New York: Wiley.

Maccoby, E. E., & Mnookin, R. H. (1992). Dividing the child. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Silverstein, L. B. (1996). Fathering is a feminist issue. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 20, 3-37.

Spence, J. T., Helmreich, R. L., & Stapp, J. (1975). Ratings of self and peers on sex role attributes and their relations to self-esteem and conceptions of masculinity and femininity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 981-988.

Starrels, M. E. (1994). Gender differences in parent child relations. Journal of Family issues, 15, 148-165.

Stephens, L. S. (1996). Will Johnny see daddy this week? An empirical test of three theoretical perspectives on postdivorce contact. Journal of Family Issues, 17, 466-494.

Warshak, R. A. (1996). Gender bias in child custody decisions. Family and Conciliation Courts Review, 34, 396-409.