Historically, in the majority of jurisdictions, the controlling precedent was that for young children (typically under the age of five years), in the event of divorce, the mother would be awarded custody automatically. This practice has largely been abandoned in most states, and in others, is used only sparingly as a sort of “tie-breaker” in scenarios where two equally fit parents seek custody of preschool-aged children. In fact, there are no states that currently mandate that a mother be afforded custody without the court first conducting a comprehensive analysis of the fitness of both parties. The majority of state legislatures instruct their courts to base custody-related decisions on what is in the child or children’s “best interest” – irrespective of the gender of each side. Fathers that are navigating the divorce process and contemplating whether or not to request physical custody of their child should not be discouraged from doing so solely on the basis of stereotypical gender roles. If both parents are employed full-time and all other factors are generally comparable, a father has just as good a chance of obtaining physical custody as the mother.