When bringing parental alienation cases to court, parties must carefully prepare their arguments, especially since child custody is in line. One strategy you may encounter is throwing in gender differences as an argument.
This strategy might lead you to think, “Between a mother and a father, is one more likely to have alienating tendencies because of their gender?”
Hearing out two perspectives
Fathers’ rights activists argue that mothers tend to have more alienating tendencies than fathers in an attempt to seek revenge for the separation or simply break the relationship between the child and the father.
Cross allegations from women’s rights activists include domestic violence and abuse. Some argue that fathers only use parental alienation to cover their acts of abuse.
Custody roles may have more effect than gender
Studies show that parents holding primary custody are more likely to alienate their children from the other parent. It just so happens that most parents who have primary custody are mothers. This may also explain why it is mostly fathers, as noncustodial parents, who claim parental alienation against the mothers.
Avoiding gender bias at all costs
While results are on a case-by-case basis, several studies show that there are no gender differences in who is likely to be the alienating parent between mothers and fathers.
Understandably, gender bias is a valid concern in parental alienation cases, given a couple of previous empirical studies showing its existence in court. It is the court’s duty to establish a fair and neutral review of the facts and circumstances of each case.