Custody Issues:  Is there a gender bias in South Carolina’s Family Court?

by Charlton Hall

Staff Writer

Last week I looked at the myth of the Deadbeat Dad.  This week I address another question of concern to upstate fathers:  who actually gets custody of the children in a divorce dispute?   According to information provided by the South Carolina Bar Association, in the state of South Carolina fathers are only granted custody in 5% of all divorce cases where the father seeks custody. That means that the mother is granted custody 95% of the time.  This is due in part to the fact that South Carolina and Tennessee are the only two states in the U.S. which still adhere to the antiquated ‘Tender Years Doctrine’, which states that children of ‘tender years’ should stay at home with their mothers.  This doctrine came from a time when mothers actually stayed at home and could devote all of their attention to the children.  When mothers work, the doctrine becomes invalid, yet South Carolina still uses it to formulate custody arrangements.

Bear in mind that the 5% of fathers who do get custody include those whose ex-wives are either severely ill or disabled, mentally incompetent, incarcerated, simply absent and unable to be found, or those who don’t even want custody.  Weighing these factors it is easy to see that Family Court judges in the State of South Carolina simply don’t think men are capable of parenting.

Is there any evidence to support South Carolina Family Court’s belief that fathers are not necessary?  Actually, there is a lot of statistical evidence to prove just the opposite is true.  According to statistics from the United States Census Bureau, children who come from fatherless homes are:

32 times more likely to run away

20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders

20 times more likely to end up in prison

14 times more likely to commit rape

10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances

9 times more likely to end up in a state operated institution

9 times more likely to drop out of school

5 times more likely to commit suicide

It can easily be seen by the above statistics that fathers play a more important role in their children’s lives than simply providing financial support.  Children need the emotional support of both parents.  Fathers today who wish to care for and nurture their children are facing the reverse of what women faced in the 70s. They are being told that men aren’t capable of being nurturing caregivers, just as women were told in the 70s that they were not capable of being serious business competitors.  The future will show that today’s opinion of men as parents is just as wrong as the previous generation’s opinion of women as executives was.  But in order for today’s fathers to prove their worthiness, they must first be given the opportunity.  Or do South Carolina Family Court judges truly believe that 95% of men in South Carolina are incapable of being parents?

Next week:  Accountability for child support expenditures.