Our campaigns
We aim to widen the debate on separation and divorce, and raise awareness of the issues women and children face.
Contrasting the position of mothers and fathers at separation:
'The father has ‘the problem of forming a direct relationship with children and winning the support of his former wife to do this. … He (has the) full support of The Children Act, the legal profession and the mediation service ... With luck he will also have the support of his own mother and a new partner who can ensure that his enhanced fathering role does not interfere with his role as independent wage earning citizen’.
The mother ‘must give up her ‘special’ relationship (for the sake of the children) and hence her status as primary carer. But she must also amend her status as a dependent, earn enough money to support herself and (in part) the children, accrue benefits against the exigencies of illness and old age, and become autonomous and self sufficient ... In this process she is unlikely to have much support from The Children Act, the legal profession or the mediation services, none of whom give priority to, or even much consideration to, the needs of mothers’.
C Smart, The New Family, Ed E B Silva and C Smart, 1999
