Working mothers are increasingly finding their successful careers used against them in custody battles in divorce. Women who devote substantial time to their jobs can find themselves facing the painful prospect of surrendering their careers or their children.

According to an article in Working Mother Magazine, it's not unusual for fathers seeking sole custody in a contested custody case to prevail at least half the time. Research shows that over the past 10 years, fathers seeking sole or joint custody have doubled.

Florida no longer uses the terms "primary residential custody" or "visitation time." Instead divorcing parents create a parenting plan, outlining when each parent will have the children and who will be responsible for major decisions like school selection and religious upbringing. However, this change in the law and the language reflect the trend seen elsewhere; with this shift, the state legislature is moving from a system favoring mothers over fathers to a more progressive system acknowledging the roles of both parents.

As the roles of mothers have changed in the work world, so have the roles of fathers in the home. Dads are now more likely to be involved in caring for their children in ways that were once the sole domain of mothers: changing diapers, going to school functions, preparing meals and so on.

There are approximately 30 million working mothers now, but economic experts say those numbers may grow as the recession continues. Sectors of the economy dominated by women - health care and education, for example - are growing, while some male-dominated sectors such as construction and banking shrink.

Men have lost three-quarters of the 6.4 million jobs eliminated since the recession began.

Many family law attorneys believe this means more men will be granted custody in divorce battles, in part because they will have more time to devote to their kids. It also means they're more likely than in the past to be granted child support and spousal support in divorce.

One way around this growing problem for working mothers, say experts, is to avoid battles in court over custody. They say parents should work to find compromises in custody disputes in negotiations and mediation. These compromises can enable parents to share custody, and most important, spare their children the pain of life without substantial involvement of one of their parents.