The initiation of divorce disparity Flashcards
What is the divorce petitioning disparity between men and women?
In the US specifically, where no-fault divorce is legal in all 50 sates, some estimates put the figure at 70%. In the UK, ONS statistics showed women petitioned for 62% of divorces in England and Wales in 2019.
What is a key difference between a fault and a no-fault divorce?
In a fault divorce, the filing spouse holds the other responsible for ruining the marriage, while in a no fault divorce no blame is placed on either party. The difference between a fault and a no fault divorce is the grounds for the divorce.
Has divorced decreased?
Since then, divorces have been on the decline. The percentage of couples divorcing in the first five years has halved since its 1990s peak. And the percentage who got divorced within the first 10 years of their marriage has also fallen significantly.
Has women economic liberation made them more inclined to divorce?
“Because economic independence is an imperative before a woman can attempt to leave a marriage, either alone or with children to support, it’s extremely difficult for women to leave a marriage unless they have some way to make money on their own,” she says. “Also, because gender roles become more complicated as women start to gain financial independence, more marital conflict naturally arises.”
Why are women with university level education more likely to get a divorce?
This also helps explain why women with university-level education are so much more likely to end a marriage. “Across cultures and geographies, women who are economically able to take care of themselves – which usually is tied to higher education levels – are more likely to initiate divorce than women who are unable to economically sustain themselves and their children,”
For many women, the expectations they have when they enter marriage may fail to match up to reality. Experts say that they often have a higher expectation of how a partner will meet their emotional needs than men, which can lead to disappointment post-wedding.
Gilza Fort-Martinez, a Florida, US-based licensed couples’ therapist, who specialises in conflict resolution, says because men are usually socialised to have lower emotional intelligence than women, this can lead to female partners feeling unsupported and doing much of the emotional labour in the relationship.
Why are women more aware of the problems in a relationship?
This emotional intelligence also means women are more finely attuned to problems and relationship “red-flags”, and their tendency to be the primary communicators and empathisers means that they may also be the first to raise issues – perhaps ultimately resulting in separation or divorce.
Are women more likely to have more close friends, therefore, better social support?
Women also tend to have more close friends than men (in fact, in the US, 15% of men say they have no close friendships at all), meaning they have a better support system both to discuss any marital issues as well as to ease the transition back into single life. It’s also possible these friendships make divorce seem like a more plausible option – research suggests that if a close friend gets divorced, people’s own chances of divorcing rise by 75%.
Why do women ability to obtain custody increase their liklihood of divorce?
Add this to the fact that women get primary custody of children in the vast majority of divorce cases, so women may feel they have less to lose when filing for divorce compared to men. And in some ways, they are right – evidence shows men’s wellbeing tends to drop much more dramatically immediately following a divorce.
Are women’s quality of life decrease?
But in reality, this effect can be short-lived. “In the short-term after divorce, men’s overall wellbeing decreases more, and they report higher levels of loneliness,” says Kar. “But over time that evens out, and women continue to suffer from more chronic, long-term effects including the loss of home ownership, reduced financial means, and increased stress from life as a single parent.”
This doesn’t mean that these women have more regrets, however. In spite of these downsides, only 27% of women say they regret getting a divorce, compared to 39% of men, showing that for most women divorce-related hardships are preferable to staying in an unhappy marriage.
Are married women likely to seek resolution?
“Women tend to be more motivated than men to resolve their marital status,” She says, based on her client record, most men are happy to remain separated, unless there is a new relationship or particular imperative to sort their finances.
For women, however, the need for a divorce can be much more pressing. “It remains a requirement for divorce to be filed in order to make a financial application,” says Spooner, referring to the legally-binding process of sorting finances out after a split. “Historically, women have had a greater need to do this due to their weaker financial position, or their role as primary caregiver.”
Spooner points out a big turning point for women initiating divorce in the UK was 1996, when being a “homemaker” was recognised as a contribution to the marriage, meaning women became entitled to a fairer share of assets. Before this, the less-wealthy spouse (usually the woman, especially if she’d given up her career) was only given financial support for basic needs, rather than how their domestic labour had contributed to the marriage. This arrangement is now common in many other countries, meaning fewer women risk poverty post-divorce, and are more motivated to push for a divorce over a separation to get their fair share of marital assets.
Summary of why divorce is deeply gendered?
What’s clear, however, is that certain factors – women’s improved earning power, men and women’s mismatched emotional needs within marriage and ongoing inequalities in household labour – mean that divorce is likely to remain deeply gendered.
Has divorce rate increased over the past 150 years?
Divorce rates steadily increased from the mid-1800s to the 1950s.
The biggest increase in divorces was between the ’60s and ’70s.
Since the turn of the 21st century, divorce has been on the decline.
What was the annual divorce rate in 1867 to 1879?
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, people often married to gain property rights or to move social class. All of that changed by the mid- to late 1800s, with the ideas of love and romance becoming the main reason to wed.
But that doesn’t mean everyone stayed married. In 1867, there were 10,000 divorces, and by 1879, there were 17,000 that year. However, the rate of divorce stayed at a very low 0.3 divorces per 1,000 Americans.
