Waubonsee Community College

From father's property to children's rights, the history of child custody in the United States, Mary Ann Mason

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-223) and index

index present

non fiction

From father's property to children's rights

bibliography

28845986

Mary Ann Mason

the history of child custody in the United States

The recent exponential increase in the number of custody disputes due to divorce, adoption, surrogate motherhood, and artificial insemination makes child custody one of the most hotly debated issues in America today. From Fathers' Property to Children's Rights seeks to clarify fundamental questions about the rights of children and parents in our society through a unique and provocative analysis of child custody in the United States from colonial times to the presentThe book gracefully combines historical and legal scholarship in an unusually rich perspective on the history of children and their parents. Mason consistently draws on this history to illuminate contemporary issues - the current emphasis on biological parenthood, the proliferation of reproductive technologies, and the growing use and misuse of the social sciencesThe author presents crucial periods of change in social attitudes and the law regarding child custody: the adaptation of English common law in the colonial period, the move toward maternal preference and child welfare in the early twentieth century, the advent in the 1970s of no-fault divorce and joint custody, and the growing influence of the social sciences, especially psychology, in contemporary custody disputesMason connects these transformations to the changing status of women with respect to culture, law, and politics. In the nineteenth century the political crusade for women's property rights and the cult of motherhood favored the woman in custody battles. In our time Mason shows that the move away from maternal preference toward equal custodial rights was promoted by feminists' struggle for equal political rights and a new theory of equal parenting supported by social scientistsBased on extensive research in case law, legislation, and social history, Mason's timely analysis of current child custody issues is a must for professionals as well as for those interested in family and social history, legal and women's studies, and child welfare in America

1. Fathers/masters: children/servants: child custody in the colonial era -- 2. From fathers' rights to mothers' love: the transformation of child custody law in the first century of the new republic, 1790-1890 -- 3. The State as superparent: the progressive era, 1890-1920 -- 4. In the best interest of the child? 1960-1990 -- 5. The ascendancy of the social sciences