ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the Fathers' Rights Movement (FRM) uses a particular interpretation of the "liberal feminist" rhetoric of gender neutrality to construct a "movement frame" that has the ironic consequence of privileging fathers' claims to child custody. The FRM is but one faction of the larger "men's movement" that has its roots in feminism. Like many social movements, the FRM is a coalition of small social movement organizations held together by a few particularly salient symbols and rhetorical frames. Just as the early civil rights movement drew upon liberalism's individualistic premises and sponsored a rhetorical frame that emphasized "colorblindness" as a way of achieving a just society, liberal feminism sponsored a "gender-neutral" frame in its early years. Equal rights resonate in the cultural field of American politics and shape the dominant frame of the early women's movement.
