Movements That Advocate Paternity Rights

In the course of history, women’s rights movements are the one adamant of voicing their rights. This may be because of patriarch society that most of the time forgets the rights of women. Nevertheless, there is a men’s movement too that forwards the rights of men including paternity.

The particular movement that advocates paternity rights is called the fathers’ rights movement. This kind of movement though is only seen in countries where divorce is legally accepted. The fathers’ rights movement primarily fights for issues related to family law, shared parenting including child custody and support, and domestic violence to name a few.

The father’s rights movement initially started in the 1960s as part of a larger men’s movement. Today, this movement has gained popularity because of members’ activism about issues of the fathers’ rights and interests. The movement believes that the issues they advocate are pressing social problems.

In the twentieth century, the noticeable shifting household demographics brought by increasing divorce cases and failing marriage rates have been one of the many reasons why this movement developed.

It is often categorized as social movement, but members prefer to label their actions as part of a civil rights movement. The mistaken characterization is based on the belief that discrimination against fathers come from government intervention and is beyond the social sciences.

Members of this movement are fathers who want an equally shared parenting with their children’s mother, either after divorce or as unwed fathers. Noted members also include women who believe in the issues forwarded by the movement. A social science study in the West showed a result of 15% women membership to father’s rights movement. Often, these women are second wives of divorced fathers.

Members of these movements vary with political and social views. Sometimes, they have different goals and methods. This movement have both liberal and conservative factions. Although they agree on the discrimination against men, they disagree on the reason why the two sexes (male and female) differ. Thus, differing viewpoints on traditional gender roles occur.

The liberal faction believes that differences occur because of culture. It supports equality between two sexes. On the contrary, the conservative group believes in traditional patriarch society and the differences occur mainly due to biology.

The father’s rights movement promotes strong relationship with their children. They also have a defined set of issues. These are limited to concerns of divorced and divorcing men.

However, the structure and limitation of the movement might be one of the causes of short-lived and unstable groups formed in countries like Australia. Sometimes, members leave the group once they have been helped. In some cases like United Kingdom, two known figures from the group Fathers 4 Justice were accused of defrauding an individual out of £500.

Today, the Internet contributed to the hefty attention garnered by such movement. It also received international press coverage because of some members’ radical activism. These people have played an important role in family law debates, especially on the issue of paternity rights.