Joint Custody: One More Step towards Gender Equality?

The increase in joint custody between 2011 and 2016 has occurred solely to the detriment of exclusive custody of the mother since exclusive custody granted to the father remains constant at about 5%. Although joint custody has increased in all the autonomous regions, the very uneven pace has accentuated differences (see Figure 1). The regions with the highest percentages of joint custody, and clearly above the average for Spain, are the Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Valencia, Aragon, the Basque Country, Navarre and La Rioja. In only five years—2011 to 2016—they have all shown rises of up to 20 percentage points in the prevalence of joint custody. As the two maps of Figure 2 demonstrate, the regions with the highest incidence of joint custody, with the exception of the Balearic Islands and La Rioja, coincide with those which have their own legislation in favour of co-parenting after divorce. In a recent study we show that besides the importance of the legislation, the most important explanatory factor with regard to joint custody is the existence of more egalitarian gender relations in the couple and in society in general and, in particular, in distribution of productive and care work (Solsona, Spijker and Ajenjo, 2017). FIGURE 1. Evolution of joint custody by autonomous region, 2011-2016 (in % of total of custody arrangements)