When looking at heterosexual marriages, do you assume that divorce is initiated more often by women or by men? It’s true that divorce has changed over the generations. It became much more common in the 1970s, with the implementation of no-fault divorce laws. But what has been happening in recent years?
What studies find is that it is usually women who initiate divorce. The exact percentage will change from year to year, but women consistently file divorce petitions more often than their husbands. Why does this happen?
Reduced interdependence
There are many potential reasons to consider, but one of the biggest is that there used to be a high level of interdependence. A man may have felt that he needed to get married so that his wife could have children, raise the kids and take care of the house. A woman may have felt that she had to get married because she didn’t have employment opportunities and so she needed an income.
But today, all of this is shifting. Both men and women are involved with raising children and taking care of the house. Likewise, both men and women are heavily involved in the workforce, and many women earn more money than their husbands.
Because of these changing roles, many women are now finding that they are free to get divorced if they want, and then they can be in charge of their own lives in a way that wasn’t possible for previous generations. This could be part of the reason why they are more likely to file for divorce. Either way, couples who are going through this process must be well aware of all their legal options.
