He said, she said: The gendered use of public testimony in the child support reform process

This paper examines the evidence used to support the claims made in the Child Support chapter of the 2003 Inquiry into Child Custody report. Of the 220 references cited in the chapter, 110 refer to individual witnesses or representatives from gendered advocacy groups. We examine these 110 references to community hearing testimony and written submissions, paying particular attention to the gender of the informant and whose interests they served. Confirming the work of feminist legal and policy scholars, we found that most references were made to men or served the interest of payers (who are mostly men). Further, of the 31 references to statements made by women, the majority of these served the interests of payers. Thus, what was presented as legitimate evidence was gendered. We conclude that the voices and interests of women were marginalized in this part of the reform process.