Does the mother have an advantage in child custody?

Although courts used to rule that mothers should generally have custody of children (particularly, young children), that is a thing of the past; in fact, it is generally agreed that basing child custody decisions upon the sex of the parent violates the Constitution. Still, child custody decisions are decided by judges, who can sometimes be subjective arbitrators, and some judges tend to believe that women are better suited to raise children. However, that’s inappropriate, and unless the child is still nursing, gender cannot be taken into account for custody determinations.