The Public Eye - Winter/Spring 2011 Edition

Fathers’ Rights Groups Threaten Women’s Gains—And Their Safety
By Pam Chamberlain
The Public Eye, Winter/Spring 2011

In June 2010, Ned Holstein, the president of the national group Fathers and Families, appeared on a Boston call-in radio show to promote a child-custody bill before the Massachusetts legislature. “The message is so simple,” he said. “We’re fit parents, most of us. We just want to be involved in helping to raise our children…. [Divorced] children have a hole in their heart. The average child would crawl over broken glass to see their absent parent.…. [This bill] is a very mild nudge in the direction of getting both parents to be involved.”

This mild-mannered approach to child custody, a major issue in contested divorces, hides the real agenda of Fathers and Families. What appears at first glance to be an honest plea for fairness is in fact a backlash movement against changing gender-role norms and family structures—cultural shifts that have been influenced by feminist thought and action.

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