There is a persistent societal assumption that mothers are the default parent, even when fathers are actively involved and listed as primary contacts. Despite efforts by many dads to take on equal parenting responsibilities, schools, doctors and even outdated systems often bypass them in favor of reaching out to mothers, reinforcing gender stereotypes.

In a study on the phenomenon, “Who You Gonna Call? Gender Inequality in External Demands for Parental Involvement,” Associate Professor of Economics Kristy Buzard and her colleagues posed as fictitious parents and emailed more than 80,000 school principals, saying they were searching for a school for their child and asking for a call back.

They found that the principals were 40 percent more likely to call the pretend mothers back than the pretend fathers. Even in cases where the email came from the father, and the father said he was more available than his wife, the principals called the mother 12 percent of the time.

Part of the reason, Buzard posits, is “this underlying belief that moms are more available and are going to be more responsive.” That suspicion was underscored by the fact that in areas with more Republican-voting, religious and rural people—traits she and her co-authors used as a proxy for traditional gender norms—moms were even more likely to be called. 

Read more in The Atlantic article, “The Default-Parent Problem.”