Kramer vs. Kramer

I don’t know how many would remember, but there was a case law reference to a case called Kramer vs. Kramer (or was it Cramer vs. Cramer) in the Contract Act in B.Com (H) - First year. While I have no memory whatsoever of what this case law was about, it sure did stand out as one of the names you could remember and refer to in the exams.

There is a movie by the same name with Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman playing Mrs. and Mr. Kramer, which I saw last evening on the flight back from Singapore. For the uninitiated, the movie is about Mrs. Kramer realising one day that she has been unhappy for 6 of the 8 years of her marriage. She decides to go away from the marriage and 'find' her own self, leaving her 5 and a 1/2 year old son behind for her husband to manage and fend for. The movie goes on in terms of how Mr. Kramer slowly but steadily comes to grips with the situation and is able to develop a special father-son bond and life's all good again. The twist is that Mrs. Kramer realises she loves her child and is now capable of taking care of him. What follows is a court battle for custody which Mrs. Kramer wins (despite having deserted her child 18 months ago). However, when the time comes to take custody, she decides against it as she thinks he is more at home with her ex-husband.

Pretty well-done movie with a very strong performance by Dustin Hoffman and a must watch for all young couples like ourselves.
What, however, stands out in the movie to me are the questions raised by Hoffman during the court process - While the woman's right to be as career oriented and ambitious as a man is accepted, why is the man's right to nurture and parent his child considered inferior to that of a woman? Why is it considered that a woman will be a better parent by virtue of her sex, than a man?