Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Legislating for Divorce?

A reader sends me this recollection from the 1980's:

I can recall back in the early 80's when the California senate, was pushing on the heels of the report that showed women's sharp decline in income following a divorce. At the time, I was an angry second wife and read/analyzed this nationally published study, pounded into the consciousness of America. It was bunk then, and it is now. However, I still recall a conversation I had with this aide, as a flurry of bills were introduced to hold men increasingly economically accountable but joint custody was fought 'tooth and nail' . I remarked to her that this would encourage women to divorce (a disaster and trap I thought) to which she responded casually, "What's wrong with that?"

If this reader figured that out in the 1980's, she was way ahead of the academics. They are still trying to deal with the fact that the combination of women getting sole custody, and men being held financially accountable, is a recipe for encouraging women to divorce.
A little known fact: women initiate between 2/3rds and 3/4ths of divorces in the US.

1 comment:

MOT said...

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