American families are facing a crisis of father absence. It didn’t happen overnight. And it didn’t happen by accident.

The process began nearly 140 years ago when Frederick Engels prattled on about the “world-historic defeat of the female sex” that arose as a direct result of living within the nuclear family. Eventually, calls to “topple the patriarchy” became the rallying cry of feminist activists.

Casually dismissing the research about the social, psychological, and financial benefits of being married, feminists began a decades-long, multi-pronged crusade to expel fathers from the family. Some feminists focused their efforts on the domestic violence issue, while others went after the broader aspects of the paternal role.

Domestic Violence

In the past, “domestic violence” referred to actions, or threats of actions to cause bodily harm to one’s intimate partner. But the recent Violence Against Women Act reauthorization expanded this definition to include psychological, economic, or technological abuse. This, in itself, is not a bad thing. Unfortunately, one can already foresee the potential mishandling of these guidelines.

There are already examples of such misuse. For instance:

1. In some states, it seems that a person might get a restraining order simply by claiming to be “fearful” or “afraid.” As a result, a father can be summarily removed from the family home without the opportunity to defend himself.

1. Overly broad definitions of abuse can also lead to accusations that are one-sided, highly exaggerated, or false. As a result, 11% of men and 6% of women reported in 2020 that they had been falsely accused of abuse. And the problem appears to be getting worse. 

1. The Fourth Amendment requires “probable cause” before an arrest can be made. But the Violence Against Women Act defies that constitutional protection, calling for “mandatory arrest.” As a result, 81% of domestic violence arrestees are males. This disparity doesn’t make sense, since most domestic violence incidents do not depend on strength differences between the parties, e.g., a slap to the face, putting poison in the food, or threat to use a weapon. 

1. Laws with names such as the “Violence Against Women Act” create a narrative that is harmful and false. Both women and men are victims of violence and spousal abuse.

Broader Aspects of the Paternal Role

There are many issues when it comes to the way in which the parental role is treated by the states as well as society.

1. Parental alienation is a form of child abuse in which one parent seeks to interfere with or harm the child’s relationship with the other parent. Based on current research, over 22 million U.S. fathers and mothers have been targets of parental alienation. Parental alienation can result in a broad range of mental health problems for the child, and loss of the parent-child relationship can be devastating to the targeted parent.

1. Widespread sex bias in the family courts system seems to fail children frequently also. The National Bureau of Economic Research concludes, “a logical and internally consistent framework for dividing parental contributions and allocations under different parenting and family scenarios such as shared parenting and non-joint children does not exist.”

1. Failing to follow the parenting plan is a violation of a court order. Unfortunately, many judges apparently do not vigorously enforce parenting plans. If judges really want to reduce their court dockets, they would impose meaningful sanctions on parents who ignore court orders for shared parenting.

1. A father who is unable to make his child support payments might have his driver’s license, professional license, and passport revoked, and be placed in jail indefinitely until he pays the arrears. As a result, hundreds of thousands of low-income fathers, unable to meet inflexible child support obligations, languish in prison.

1. Judicial bias against men and fathers has been extensively documented. This bias can be traced in part to judicial education initiatives funded by the Violence Against Women Act. 

1. Father engagement leads to a broad range of improved outcomes for children, including greater academic success, positive social behavior, fewer conduct problems, better self-esteem, and reduced contact with the juvenile legal system. The Institute for Family Studies released a report that concludes boys raised in female-headed households are “particularly at risk for adverse outcomes across many domains, including high school dropout, criminality, and violence.” 

So, we can see that dads have not “abandoned” the family en masse. They have been pushed out by a series of ideologically based, Marxist-inspired policies and practices that continue to the present day. The science, as well as common sense, dictate that children need both parents in their lives in order to get the best psychological and social outcomes.

Pro-family advocates need to work to reverse decades of harmful federal policies that have steadily chipped away at paternal involvement in their families.