Divorce rates and Decline of Civilization?

Question

I have repeatedly heard the argument that because of feminism divorce rates are up and this is contributing to the decline of western civilization. I disagree and feel that there is no causal evidence of this link. For this reason, I would like to make my question two pronged:

1) What is the evidence for a causal link between feminism, divorce rates and the decline of the western world? if you have sources that I could see, that would be great : )

and

2)what good does it do for western civilization for a man or a woman to be trapped in a union with another human being who treats them like garbage?

kendrick: this is my response to the question related to your link : "it seems to me that our culture advocates getting married as the singular acheivement of ones adult life, but no one ever thinks about BEING married. theres this huge rush to have the event, but the way it changes your life is never discussed or thought of. This type of thing is indicative of that very principle. "

It has nothing to do with feminism despite how it is being painted by some, but with a cultural ideal of a wedding as a status symbol and a rite of passage without the follow through of what it means to BE married.

itisfutile: explain how i have any of my anatomy inserted anywhere that it isnt supposed to be. I asked what i saw as afairly respectful question trying to deal with an argument that I see all too often on this forum. if you cant support your argument, then maybe you dont have one.

kendrick: the concepts of individualism is what paved the ideological way for feminism, not the other way around. this is not a "chicken or the egg" situation.
I would also say that a culture that obssesses about weddings but not being married can hardly be linked to an ideology that believes that women are people with equal worth.

you can't blame everything on women wanting to be treated as human beings.

kendrick, that is not what i said. i said that concepts of individualism paved the road for feminism. And thats even if you want to look at this purely from the ideological movement perspective. Feminism did not give birth to individualism, and all feminism teaches is that a woman has just as many rights to her life as a man. i threw in the comment about blaming feminism, which is a movement of women wanting to be treated like human beings, because that is the basis of the feminist ideology. i was not attacking you, i was simply trying to remind you that you cant twist everything around to blame it on an ideology that you obviously dont disagree with. i am not accusing you of hating women or of wanting to oppress us. I am accusing you of equating a democratic ideology with stupid people who take the title of feminist without even knowing what gender equality is.
I personally think you are smarter than that. Im trying to give you some credit here, so no hard feelings?

Answer 1

I think it's better for people who no longer are getting along to get divorced than stay together for the sake of their children. I've known people whose parents did just that and believe me, those people did not appreciate it. They got sick of their parents fighting or avoiding each other. Children aren't stupid. They know when adults are pretending things are great when in fact they're not. Just because divorce rates were lower in the past does not mean there were more happy marriages. It used to be common for one or both of the parents to walk out and abandon their children. Another common practice was to stay married but live separate lives. A lot of women stayed in unhappy marriages because they knew the alternatives for them would be much worse. While I wish the divorce rates weren't as high as they are today, I still feel it's better to have no marriage than a bad one.

Answer 2

This has been shown that many times on here.. itisfutile is right, you've repeatedly heard the argument yet still need to ask what it is .. you have your head up the proverbial. I'm not going to spend much time on this either.

(1) Temporal correlation between feminism and divorce = statistics before feminism vs statistics after feminism.
(2) Spatial correlation between feminism and divorce = no fault divorce instated in all states by feminists, increased sole maternal custody lobbied for by feminists, "women need men like a fish needs a bicycle" attitudes espoused by feminists.

Feminism = divorce is proven by Hume's laws of causality.

Women initiate divorce 2/3 of the time for wishy washy reasons around 80% of the time:

http://fembothunter.blogspot.com/2007/07/fundamental-statistics-marriage-and.html

Be sure to pay attention to the image on the left.

Single mother families are responsible for 75% of inmates and a whole host of other social ills:

http://www.civitas.org.uk/pubs/experiments.php

There are plenty of other reasons, but that pretty much does it on it's own.

Answer 3

Feminism is the cause for broken families and the high divorce rate in the West. 60% of men cheat on their wives. 2/3 of women divorce. Nearly 80% of marriages end in divorce within one year of marriage in the West. As for the decline of society that went out the window a long time ago(at least in the West). What is the problem with women depending on their men for everything? Some women choose to respect their God given role in society and like being housewives and or stay at home moms. It's better for the children if their mother is at home 24/7. What is the point of having kids if your not going to be there for them all the time and throw them in daycare from day 1 of their life? You may as well sterilize yourself. And housewives and stay at home moms are NOT domestic prositutes. I'm a housewife and respect my traditional role that God gave all women in society and I enjoy it. To be honest I care less if about women's right to vote or drive.

Answer 4

****Do not make false accusations of me not wanting Women to be treated as human beings. I would rather not stoop that low, and reciprocate your statements by going around and portraying you as a man-hater, especially when it doesn't pertain to the issue discussed****

Here is an article on MSN the other day encouraging women to have starter husbands, and dump him without having any emotions about it, as if it's good... I wonder who gets the kids: http://lifestyle.msn.com/relationships/c... "I felt empowered, like, Woo-hoo", and "It's like, if I thought I had to have my hair the same way for the rest of my life, I'd freak out." and more. Women are going through husbands, much like how they re-arrange the furniture every month, get new shoes every few weeks, constantly re-painting the house, and changing the colors of the curtains(women are initiating most of the divorces today and they're taking the children away from the men).

Remember that all men treat all women like garbage, according to women.

But, it really goes beyond the whole "Woman Power" and Woman empowerment propaganda that produces hate(Do you know any race, or other gender that can go around saying "_____ Power"?). But it also comes down to economics... with technology today, men and women don't need each other to survive as they did in the past. With this, people don't have to stay married.

Edit: And as far as decline in civilization, that is purely about perspective. There are good things and bad things.... it's just a matter of addressing the bad things, and cleaning them up... not sweeping them under the rug and denying them while encouraging them.

Edit(2): Yes, what you're explaining is Individualism.
- Notice definition of selfish: Concerned chiefly or only with oneself
- definition of Individualism: the pursuit of personal happiness and independence rather than collective goals or interests
See the similarities between the 2 definitions? Where do you think our Extremely Individualistic society comes from? You don't think Feminism has No Bearing Whatsoever on teaching Individualism? People need to learn to be for the group(family) or community, as opposed to be for themselves only(and this is not relevant to working or equality, but the "Empowerment" and "Woman Power" mentalities that are displayed mixed with acceptable hate towards men). That's where the institution of marriage has been destroyed(Extreme Individualism altogether, although Feminism teaches this, it's not entirely to blame). Extreme Individualism = Selfishness.

Or you could keep disregarding it, or making it the man's fault like One answer has claimed, which is purely the Political Agenda of Feminism which is to portray everything to be the man's fault. Of course, ignoring it won't change anything, except living in a little box, with no vision of the world we live in. The hate towards men--just watch a Feminist video... you'll get the picture.

Edit(3-Last): Your last additional comment is out there. It doesn't really pertain to what I said. Even adding "you can't blame everything on women wanting to be treated as human beings" proves that you didn't actually read or comprehend what I wrote. But if you want to start bashing me, and Uncorrectly stating that I don't believe in equality or hate women when it was clearly stated otherwise, I can reciprocate the same(and say that you hate men, or portray it that way)? I would rather not start that, but it seems that you are. There's no chicken or egg argument here. Feminism(among other things) teaches extreme individualism. You even said it yourself. And it's pretty much common knowledge that feminism primarily paved the road. That's what Feminism is all about.

Answer 5

i think of according to danger forcing longer engagements could be a extra useful answer. maximum of individuals get married because of the fact they think of they're in love, yet in all actuality that's merely deep like. i'm regrettably a sort of records. My first husband and that i married while i became merely 19 years previous. No, i became no longer pregnant or maybe thinking of youngsters. i assumed i became in love, yet have come to the top i became in love with being in love. We married and lasted merely 6 months in the previous we separated. We have been so incompatible and neither people had the braveness to end the marriage. i assume the only solid element approximately our divorce became there became no little ones in touch. We parted procedures and the two one people have moved on. i'm now thankfully living in a consumer-friendly regulation marriage with a guy i like extra advantageous than respiration and we've 3 astonishing young little ones. we've pointed out getting married, yet neither people choose to alter the way issues are. it quite works for us and the little ones.

Answer 6

I honnestly don't give a damn about his whole marriage and divorce crap. Marriage nowadays doesn't mean s**t anymore, in fact, many people nowadays are getting marriage because it is consider a "cool" thing to do, with their cheap fancy clothes, diamond ring and huge wedding parties only to find themselves file for a divorce couple of weeks later. It's all materialistic.

Marriage is pretty much pointless in today world, traditional familly values as we know it, are long gone (at least in the West). And let not for forgett the fact that, Men, majority of the time ALWAYS end up getting screw in a marriage or a divorce. Men should just forgett about marriage and stay single, I know I am. And even if I WANT to get marriage, I'd have a MUCH better chance with a Mail-order bride than an selfish ****y Western/American woman.

And you want to talk about the "decline of Civilization"? Society and Civilization gone downhill a long time ago.

End my pointless rant

Answer 7

Well for one woman get everything in a divorce, the kids alimony, half of what the man has even if she didn't buy it with her money. Thus causing it to be very tempting to get a divorce and actually a lot of woman do it just for that reason, get married take the money sometimes just out of spite, and feminist constantly want more for divorced woman even though they don't work for any of it.
And two nobody should stay in a marriage with somebody who treats them like garbage its up to you. But that being said woman now days listen to to much Oprah and Dr.Phil and think guy's should be perfect when in reality woman deserve to be with who they picked. I say to men and woman don't get married until you know who your with. Woman always love to play the victim and that's why some stay in abusive relationships, just for attention and a reason to cry to there girlfriend and use it as an excuse to cheat. The fact is a lot of woman pick there men because they are successful or take care of them, not because they get along and that's there fault. Woman love to battle the boss or successful man. Its a challenge and when they leave there mark, they move to the next big confident man and strip it from him buy taking him to court and making him look like the bad guy. Its all about power for woman more so then men they wanna trap and take them for there pride.
This is why i think no man succesful or not should never get married and should always use condoms, and get a woman from another country or something who aprciates everything he does even the arguments

Answer 8

personally i think everything went to hell with feminism..
families breaking up..
both parents gone with kids home alone

your assessment of being treated like garbage isn't valid on itself..
one persons prospective of treatment is not always the same value on other..
main cause of problems are one side or the other refuses to see anything other then him or herself..
and totally forgettin the real issue on a relationship is not for him or her.. but for the kids..
kids grow up not knowing this and just adds to the problem when they enter into the mating game

Answer 9

Here's the thing, due to feminism women work and are not longer economically dependent on men (unless they choose to be domestic prostitutes, er I mean home makers, but that's another problem). Anyway, because women no longer need men to survive or support themselves and their possible children divorce can be an option. In the past when women had no economic means, except through domestic prostitution er I mean home making, many women who were treated poorly by their husbands or needed or wanted divorces were not able to divorce. In fact, I suspect that divorce laws, spousal support etc. are a result of this world where women generally could not support themselves and wonder if some of these things should be a thing of the past.

Anyways, that's how feminism has lead to higher divorce rates and there is no denying that feminism has played a role in divorce rates, but so what if it has? Some crazy nutters might argue that it's feminist attitudes that lead to divorce, but generally this is not the case unless you're talking the false man hating kind of 'feminist'.

Anyways, western civilization. Typically the type who will blame feminism and not other causal factors on divorce rates tend to have certain political agendas that often relate to the Christian right, as in they're very conservative nutters. Well, what do these nutters like to emphasis? Traditional gender roles and the family. What can't these nutters understand? More realistic ideas about gender and the family. Usually it's dull men making these arguments who want their power back or domestic prostitutes er I mean home makers wanting respect and not wanting to work for it. This is part of their political agenda, so these people then blame feminism for all divorce, all crime, drug use, homosexuality (which is typically considered wrong by these nutters) etc. Just watch one of those evangelical networks. You'll get the picture.

Answer 10

Im just too lazy to answer a question to someone with their head obviously up the perverbial.

Lucky for me there is a question just the next to yours that may give you some insite to your question.

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuN0XytG5ctJ8SiPBflR2FFA6Qt.;_ylv=3?qid=20070916233447AAqeUCr

edit
bluestareyed
Let me put it this way for you dear. You say you repeatedly heard the argument yet still need to ask this question. Then yes your head is in the perverbial and no I am not going to be bothered with pulling links for you as you have seen them all, heard them all but yet here we are.