Shockome Syndrome

The feminist movement is worried about the fatherhood movement. The California National Organization for Women recently issued a 95-page report called Disorder in the Courts: Mothers and Their Allies Take on the Family Law System, in which they warn "the fathers' rights movement has been gaining strength and legitimacy. Fatherhood groups are well-funded, well-organized and publicly supported through conservative mouthpieces in the media." In the report, many prominent figures in the Feminist Family Law Movement (FFLM) call for a "mothers' rights movement" to block the rising fatherhood movement.

The National Organization for Women attacked divorced dads in a resolution at its national conference in July. This spring several branches of NOW, including New York and Michigan, issued Action Alerts against moderate legislative attempts to help dads remain a part of their children's lives after divorce or separation.

One of the fatherhood movement's primary goals is to get family courts and family law to properly address the issue of parental alienation. Parental alienation occurs when one parent, usually the custodial parent, has turned his or her children against the other parent, destroying the loving bonds the children and the target parent once enjoyed.

The fatherhood movement has had some modest success in creating awareness of parental alienation, both in the courtroom and in the media. Now the FFLM is hitting back hard. NOW's July resolution denounced Parental Alienation Syndrome as a "defense strategy for batterers and sexual predators that purports to explain a child's estrangement from one parent, or explains away allegations against the estranged parent of abuse/sex abuse of child, by blaming the protective parent." According to NOW, the employment of this "unethical, unconstitutional, and dangerous" tactic is so common as to constitute "epidemic levels of abuse and dysfunction in our court system."

California NOW's report attacks the fatherhood movement and relentlessly assails PAS. CANOW Executive Director Helen Grieco calls PAS a "scam," and says, "As activists we must continue to expose the true agenda of the Fathers' Rights movement. We must eradicate the gender bias...that is rampant in our family courts." The annual Battered Mothers Custody Conference, which will be held January 12-14 in Albany, New York, espouses similar views.

Newsweek magazine, in a recent article called "Fighting Over the Kids: Why Parents Who Batter Win Custody," claims that "many parents nationwide…have lost custody due to a controversial concept known as parental alienation…Parental alienation is now the leading defense for parents accused of abuse in custody cases, according to domestic-violence advocates. And it's working."

Parental alienation was the leading topic at a recent Dallas, Texas domestic violence conference sponsored by the Dallas County District Attorney and numerous domestic violence groups. The Dallas Morning News reports that parental alienation is "an increasingly common defense in child-custody battles [which] is raising concerns among those who work with victims of domestic violence…Advocates of domestic violence victims say a growing number of batterers are using the tactic in court to gain custody of their children." Recent lopsided articles in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Contra Costa Times, the Providence Journal and many others have expressed similar sentiments.

Last October PBS aired Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories on affiliates across the country. The film pointed to an alleged epidemic of loving, protective mothers losing custody of their children to abusive, molesting fathers after the fathers claimed parental alienation.


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