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Equal Rights for Divorced Fathers has an extensive collection of dad-themed mugs. Photo by Steve Andrascik.

Sunday, June 17, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Census shows number of single fathers heading families heading higher

In Nevada, 2.9 percent of households are run by dads, up from 2 percent in 1990

When it comes to single dads stepping up to raise their families, Nevada has been in the vanguard for a decade.

The women's rights movement is largely responsible, say some onlookers. By pushing women toward equality in the workplace, the movement also has improved men's status as theoretically equal partners inside the home. Economics also may be a factor.

Raising kids "gives you impetus to get up and go to work. It's ... something to come home to. It gives you a sense of belonging, of value, of being needed," says Ernest Del Casal, who founded Equal Rights for Divorced Fathers in Las Vegas in 1982.

The U.S. Census Bureau measures the increase of single dads in bulk: According to the 2000 census, 2.9 percent of Nevada's households were headed by a single dad, compared with 2.1 percent of all U.S. households. Back in 1990, single dads already led 2 percent of households in Nevada, versus 1 percent of U.S. households.

The single-dad trend can be analyzed in various ways. The Associated Press reported in May that Nevada's census data showed one of the highest increases in single-father households, with a jump of 126 percent from 1990 to 2000. That was largely because the original quantity was low, 9,769 such households in 1990, rising to 22,099 households in 2000, says Jason Fields, a Census Bureau spokesman.

An analysis by USA Today, published May 24, ranked North Las Vegas in the top five among U.S. cities with 100,000 population or more, for the percentage of single-dad households. Fields had no comment on the analysis by the newspaper. "We really talk more about national figures here," he says.

The census shows single dads led 4 percent of all households in North Las Vegas, notes Jeff Hardcastle, Nevada's state demographer. In Las Vegas, the share of dad-only households with kids was 3 percent, and in Henderson, 2.6 percent.

Donald Carns, a sociology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, isn't surprised to hear North Las Vegas has a high percentage of single-dad families. "There are more custodial dads in relatively lower socioeconomic groups. There are more situations in which the mom may not be capable or willing. Or might even be absent."

In Carns' opinion, when two-parent families of higher socioeconomic status fall apart, the parents are more apt to have the means to work out a plan for joint participation in the children's lives.

Hardcastle questions whether Nevada's high single-dad rate is a positive breakthrough caused by gender equality. Instead, it could be because of harmful pressures on the family caused by rapidly growing communities that have gaming as their economic base.

Del Casal measures the social change one family at a time, by hard-fought child custody cases. Equal Rights for Divorced Fathers, a small nonprofit group at 23 N. Mojave Road, offers a support group and legal assistance to single dads, including men who never married.

Del Casal says when he started the group, 1 percent to 3 percent of all cases in which the organization assisted resulted in the man obtaining custody. "Now, with the numbers we see, well over a third of the fathers that ask for custody, receive it."

Equal Rights for Divorced Fathers does not track cases of local fathers who pursue custody on their own, or use other legal resources. No one else does, either.

Diana Alba, assistant county clerk for Clark County, says the Family Court's computer software doesn't cover gender. "It's very hard to capture the gender of plaintiffs or defendants. We've actually had (child custody) judges ask us. They've been accused of gender bias, so they'll ask, `How many males are prevailing?' We just can't tell them."

Del Casal began advocating for fathers in the early '80s, when he picketed his daughter's elementary school to gain access to her school records. The child's mother had physical custody and was denying Del Casal access to school and medical records.

Eventually, Del Casal won custody. He remembers the judge's reaction when the recommendation came from a hearing master that Julia, then 5 and now 23, should live with her dad. "He looked at it and he was outraged. `Who's going to bathe this child?' he asked."

"The same person who's been bathing the child," Del Casal says he answered. The judge, now deceased, was concerned about a man raising a child of the opposite sex.

The legal idea that the mother is always best-suited to care for a young child is called the tender-age doctrine. But that principle has weakened over time.

"Raising children used to be predominantly women's work," says Chris Heavey, who is part of the psychology faculty at UNLV. But as women have made gains in status, they are "free, independent and can fulfill outside goals."

As mothers take on responsibilities away from home, many fathers have taken on more child-rearing duties, whether the family is intact with two parents, two unmarried parents who live together or parents who no longer live together.

"As men feel less constricted (by old gender roles), they get more involved in being parents, and may end up being the more involved parent, and don't want to give it up" when a marriage, or nonofficial relationship with the mother ends, Heavey says.

Eddie Cowan, 40, of Henderson, has been raising sons Tyler, 5, and Brandon, 18, alone for the last three years. Their mother lived in California for part of that time. Last year, the court officially awarded him physical custody of the boys, with visitation for their mom.

However, mainstream society has not fully embraced the adjusted parental roles. Cowan, for example, says he is supposed to receive child support payments from the boys' mother, his ex-wife. But when he went to the district attorney's office to check on garnishment of her wages, he says office staff could not initially find his file, because they assumed Cowan as the dad was the noncustodial parent. Such records are filed under the custodial parent's identity.

Gary Green, 43, divorced three years ago, did not initially win physical custody of the children. Eight months ago, he received physical custody of daughter Sandy, 11, and son Chandler, 7, with visitation for their mom.

"I hate to say, I spent a full year following every move she (their mom) made, and every mistake that she made," Green recalls. When the children began missing school, Green says he asked the court to review the parenting arrangement.

An employee in the public works department of North Las Vegas, Green believes the court system is still geared to award children to the mom, if she desires. "The guy has to walk on water. The woman has to just be there," he says.

Some parents seek child custody as a way to get back at the ex-partner. But when the emotions have settled, many parents of either gender still seek custody for other, better reasons.

According to Heavey: "People look for ways to find fulfillment in life. For many people, raising their family is the primary way to find fulfillment."