Ending the mother blaming culture
A culture of blaming women, disrespecting their views and devaluing their caring work, is entrenched in discourse on contact and residency issues.
Women often find their concerns are ignored, and their stories are rarely heard. As a result, popular opinion and policy often fail to see children's needs beyond contact needs, and tend to hold women responsible when they are experiencing domestic abuse or child care difficulties.
It is not uncommon for women to report that they were required to undergo assessment by a psychologist or social worker as part of the family court process, but their ex partner was not. Even when men are abusive, professionals tend to focus on the need for the woman to change.
The myth that most women prevent contact for vindictive reasons has contributed to the culture of blaming women. Women’s attempts at protecting their children are routinely misinterpreted as hostility or alienation, and there is increasing emphasis in law to punish resident parents (mainly mothers) who do not support contact.
For a detailed account of the difficulties women face through separation and divorce see our report Valuing Motherhood.
We want to end this mother blaming culture, with a shift in emphasis to why some mothers feel contact is not in their child’s best interest, bringing attention back to children’s full range of needs, including primary attachments and safety.
We do this by ensuring women have an equal voice in family law, raising awareness of the issues women face, and providing evidence based research to support our claims.
