I've spoken with a lot of people who grew up with their step-mothers, and they all uniformly talk about being persecuted and abused by them, being treated blatantly less favorably than their siblings given birth to by the step-mother. The fathers are usually aloof in the story, usually not caring about the child's welfare under the step-mother..
These people are usually those whose own mothers have died, so there really is a power imbalance and they live under the mercy of the step-mother.
My own step-mother is very nice, but there was never a power imbalance as I could walk out the door anytime if she tried to mistreat me (and my own mother would have probably skinned her alive....my step-mother has always been very scared of my mother, in fact most people are because she has a volcanic temper)...
These people are usually those whose own mothers have died, so there really is a power imbalance and they live under the mercy of the step-mother.
My own step-mother is very nice, but there was never a power imbalance as I could walk out the door anytime if she tried to mistreat me (and my own mother would have probably skinned her alive....my step-mother has always been very scared of my mother, in fact most people are because she has a volcanic temper)...