ABSTRACT
Mother is neutered and fatherhood ascends. 'Authorities', including medical and other professional personnel, operate without substantial opposition within the context of historically male institutions. The rhetoric of father's rights and father's responsibilities reflects the tendency to reduce family policy to mere discussions of individual rights. Fatherhood is, after all, an 'essential' form of male behavior and, as male behavior, it is profoundly affected, defined, even confined, by societal representations. Some men are conclusively presumed to be responsible potential reproducers, others are not. The focus on paternity proceedings designed to tie together financially men and single mothers and their children obscures the magnitude and dimensions of the economic deprivations that make it difficult for women who make decisions to reproduce or to raise their children. The paternity proceeding is typically classified as civil in nature, yet it is viewed by many public-interest advocates as akin to a criminal trial.
