Would a single father make as good a parent as a single mother? Are courts inclined to award custody to women? These issues were dealt with in the movie “Kramer vs. Kramer”. Billy’s mother Joanne (a college graduate and a stay at home mom) leaves Billy and his father Ted suddenly to pursue her own dreams. After about 2 years she comes back and wants custody of their son and all go to court. She wins but decides not to split the two apart. This movie reflects the mood of the 70’s with changing child custody laws due to the rise in divorce and working mothers. “Beginning in the 1970s a major swing in custody law sharply reversed what had been a well-entrenched preference for mothers. Most states adopted laws conferring an equal status on the custodial rights of mother and father with a favorable attitude toward joint custody” (http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/deans/mason/booksfathersintroduction.shtml).
In the 50s & 60s most women were content to be stay at home housewives but the 70s saw many changes one of which was a new respect for women who worked outside their homes. With this change courts also changed their attitude to a more individual approach on who would be awarded child custody but the numbers are still in favor of women. In 2004 14.0 million parents had custody of 21.6 million children under 21. Five of every six custodial parents were mothers (83.1%) and 1 in 6 were fathers (16.9%).custodial parents. 64.2% of those women received child support and 39.8% of men received child support(w.census.gov). "Fathers rights groups are angry and hurt that men don't have at least 50% custody of their children after divorce" (106).
While there are no numbers for the actual desire of men or women who wanted child custody – the actual statistics are unbalanced as are the child support percentages. It’s interesting to think what this culture would be like if the percentages of men and women custodial parents were closer to equal.