You should educate yourself about how the Tender Years Doctrine works as well as how custody is awarded to unwed parents if you think custody is not automatically awarded to the mother.
> You should educate yourself about how the Tender Years Doctrine works as well as how custody is awarded to unwed parents if you think custody is not automatically awarded to the mother.
You should educate yourself about the fact that the tender years doctrine has both been legislatively replaced in most states starting in the 1970s and also struck down by various courts as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the federal Constitution and similar provisions of various state Constitution if you think it is relevant now, rather than historically, to policy on child custody.
Unwed parents are a somewhat different case (because the legal presumption of paternity, and the implicit assumption of stable cohabitation, doesn't exist outside of marriage.) Yes, in the case of unmarried parents, the mother has automatic custody, and the father must both establish paternity and make an active claim for custody.