Lisa Scott is a family law/divorce attorney based in Bellevue who represents approximately an equal share of male and female clients. Co-founder of Taking Action Against Bias in the System (TABS), Lisa has fought for equal justice and gender equality in family courts since the 1990s.
Lisa spoke with Washington Initiative for Boys and Men about matters in Washington state. We broke the footage down into multiple short videos, of which the first was about the difficulty of fighting for fairness for men in Washington, the second was about what it’s like being a woman advocating for men, and this third one is about how the the huge increase in equal shared parenting in Washington is good news for kids.
The reason we say the cultural shift toward 50/50 custody arrangements is especially good news for boys is that it has resulted in more boys benefitting from greater involvement of their dads in their lives.
Above is a 3-minute video that shows excerpts from our conversation with Lisa Scott. Below is an edited transcript of the video.
Lisa Scott: There has been a huge increase in equal shared parenting, and I think it’s a cultural change.
Going back to 1999, there was a study called the Diane Lye study which looked at parenting plans, and the law in Washington, and the experiences of parents. It was funded by the court system to find out what was going on and why people were so unhappy with the court system.
At that time, in 1999, only about 5% of parenting arrangements involved equal time for mom and dad. The vast majority of cases were mom having primary custody and dads having some percentage – 10, 15, 20%.
Of only a very small percentage of people are bad parents – whether moms or dads – why are dads not getting more time with their kids? What is wrong?
There were several bills introduced in Olympia over the years to make equal shared parenting the presumption, but the bills never got traction.
Fast forward to 2010, the year the latest Residential Time Summary Report was published, equal time – 50/50 parenting plans – were shown as 21% of cases statewide. That is a huge increase! And another 10% of parenting plans involved mom having 60% of the time with the kids and dad having 40%.
Should all custody arrangements be 50/50?
WIBM: We all acknowledge there is some small percentage of parents – both moms and dads – who are unfit parents, in the sense that they meet court’s ‘limiting factors’ like abusiveness, alcoholism, etc. So it can’t be that 100% of custody arrangements should be 50/50.
Lisa Scott. Right. Also, not every dad wants 50/50 and not every mom wants 50/50. There are a lot of cases where people separate and they develop a routine. Maybe it’s the kids with dad 25% or 30% of the time. But I do have to say that over the last 20+ years it has become much more more of a standard in people’s minds that parents, after splitting up, should share fairly close to 50/50 the raising of their children.
WIBM: They want their kids to have both their mom and their dad in the picture. Maybe they’ve read studies and are aware of research that shows the benefits for both daughters and sons of having their mom and dad in their lives.
Lisa Scott. Exactly. Back in the ’60s and ’70s, divorce was very uncommon. As time went by, more and more families split up. There are a lot of people who are now parents themselves who are children of divorce. They felt the pain of being kept away from their mom or dad, and they are determined not to have their own children go through that.
Read related WIBM piece: With moms in Washington outnumbering single dads two to one, a lot more boys than girls lack a same-sex parent
Read related WIBM piece: Powerful pro-fathers message given by Governor Inslee appointee to Washington State Fatherhood Summit
