Allen, Douglas W. --- "The Anatomy of Canada’s Child Support Guidelines: The Effects, Details, and History of a Feminist Family Policy" [2011] ELECD 599; in Cohen, R. Lloyd; Wright, D. Joshua (eds), "Research Handbook on the Economics of Family Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Economics of Family Law

Editor(s): Cohen, R. Lloyd; Wright, D. Joshua

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848444379

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: The Anatomy of Canada’s Child Support Guidelines: The Effects, Details, and History of a Feminist Family Policy

Author(s): Allen, Douglas W.

Number of pages: 27

Extract:

7 The anatomy of Canada's child support guidelines:
the effects, details, and history of a feminist family
policy
Douglas W. Allen*


That a purely feminist ideological theory on economic relations between men and women should
be constructed into regulations under the Divorce Act, under the guise and title of child support,
is a serious matter and deserves study. (Senator Anne Cools 2000, p. 1030)

1. INTRODUCTION

Although a recent phenomenon, both the United States and Canada now have formula-
based rules for assigning child support to divorced couples. Although some U.S. states
began using guidelines in the late 1970s, most were enacted in 1988 from federal govern-
ment pressure. In the U.S., two systems are generally used. The first is called an "obligor"
or "Wisconsin" model in which child support depends only on the number of children
in the custodial home and the non-custodial income.1 The second is called an "income
shares" model, where net-payments are based on the relative incomes of the former
spouses. Many court challenges have been made against the Wisconsin model, and in
recent years some states have switched from it to the income shares model.2
Canada was slower than the U.S. in developing a guideline system.3 Work began in
the late 1980s, and the federal guidelines were only adopted in 1997. Although there are
few references in the Canadian federal documents related to the U.S. systems, Canada's
child support guidelines (Guidelines) follow the basic ...