Lowest divorce rates since 1970?

Question

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8P1MG601&show_article=1

Why do some people in this forum say that feminism is destroying marriages when the divorce rate is at its lowest since 1970? More people are working on saving their marriages now than in decades past. Some studies have found that married women who work are NOT a factor in divorce, in fact, working women tend to stabilize marriage. True, many are opting not to marry, which may be part of the reason for the decline in divorce rates. But is this really a bad thing? Your thoughts?

Jules: I think you can thank inflation and the economy for that one. The cost of living is much higher now and that's NOT the result of feminism.

Sarah: thank you, that was very interesting!

Answer 1

Teen pregnancy was never higher than in the 1950's, yet instead of having abortions, teens were handed wedding rings. 15 year olds were getting married and destroying their educational opportunities. Women in particular had no opportunities because high paying blue collar jobs were not available to them, so despite being unhappy many women stayed married due to being unable to survive economically without a husband.

Edit: a moderate divorce rate is normal and healthy for society. It says that people feel free to make choices. There is not a thing wrong with cohabitation.

Rob: you're full of crap and the men who would "turn against marriage" for the reasons you cited, we're not marriage material in this era anyway. So who cares?

Answer 2

Statistics on divorce is the same - approximately 51% end in divorce. The difference in the current statistics for divorce is the fact that fewer couples are getting married....they chose to cohabit instead. Statistics and polls can be manipulated in many ways..... It all depends upon how questions are formed. Same with statistics....it all depends upon the reference point being used. If 5 married couples out of 10 divorce....that is a 50% divorce rate. If 5 nonmarried couples out of 10 separate - there is no divorce, consequently they would not be considered in the statistics.

Answer 3

Another interesting thing about divorce that wasn't in your article source is that a certain percentage of divorced people have more than one under their belt which makes statistics crunch up to look different than what is actually happening in society. As for the decline, living together before marriage and postponing marriage to an average age of 25 probably accounts for the drop in divorce, in my opinion.

Answer 4

One could also say the divorce rates are down because more couples are just living together and not getting married.

http://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/06statab/vitstat.pdf
(go to the last page)

"divorces are down primarily because more couples live together without marrying"- Three paragraphs into your source

And that though divorce rate of college educated couples are down, those of less educated are not.- your source. Considering there are less people holding a college degree than those that do not, this doesn't exactly show that divorce rates are down either.

We cannot simply state facts without looking deeper into them. I think its great that more couples are saving their marriages and see that the many and wide variety of problems that effect marriage are no longer "hush hush" and they feel more comfortable getting help and working in their marriage. But you cannot deny that the sky rocket of divorce rates in the late 60's 70's and 80's were due to women becoming more independent and free of being labeled from getting out of horrible (or sometimes not so horrible) marriages. Which was a result of feminism.

EDIT----The inflation is a result of both couples being able to have jobs and afford more. More money in the economy equals inflation. It is because of feminism.

Object- few states recognize common law marriages anymore....check your facts.

EDIT- Actually common law mariage is up to the provences, not all of which recognize common law marriage...like the states. Check you facts (still).

Answer 5

The divorce rate exploded in 1970 because that's when divorce laws were first liberalized, and women (and man) felt more freedom to escape bad marriages. And, yes, social scientists have found that the health of a marriage is not dependent on whether or not the wife works.

Answer 6

When the marriage rates fall, divorce rates also fall. Now its the time of co-habitation or living together with no marriage.

Answer 7

Because the radical feminism you refere to has been abandoned in favor of the true, tried feminism of old that says that men should treat women well, and 1 good man complements 1 good woman.

Answer 8

Declined Lowest ???
1. Cost to much
2. Who can afford a wedding?
3. Who is that dumb?
If you are a working women and marry a non working guy, he gets the house, car and the dog. So why marry. if you can work and get all that yourself?
Stabilized women are no fun.
We as women have to have fun and without paying. Our roles in life have changed and changed for the best for US
Don't ruin it when you can be free and free of all the courts and paying the lawyers.
And above all don't marry a drunk.
He gets everything also, cause they say he is sick...... then you have his bills also.

Answer 9

I think that maybe there were some marriages that couldn't handle women working outside the home when we began this social experiment. But for goodness sakes, at this point in history pretty much everyone expects the woman to work outside the home. I think some people need to catch up.

Answer 10

Because no one is marrying anymore... there were more single households recently than married households for the first time ever...

So basically, the destruction of marriage is beginning to reap it's rewards, and that is we are heading towards a non-marriage society. For a man to get married in our current social structure, would not be an intelligent choice.

Consider this:

- Women initiate 75% of divorces.

- Women take away the child from the man 80% of the time(legal kidnapping----75% initiate the divorces).

- 40% of mothers reported that they had interfered with the fathers visitation to punish their ex-spouse.
["Frequency of Visitation" by Sanford Braver, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry]

- 50% of mothers see no value in the fathers continued contact with his children.
["Surviving the Breakup" by Joan Berlin Kelly]

Edit: Actually Jules (and the MRS. too) is correct (apart from the opinion)... it's simple Economics. We all compete against one another for income. Example: If I told you that I would pay you a million dollars a year, you would get excited. But then if you found out that I paid everyone else in the world 2 million dollars, now you would be the poorest person on earth. Again, we all compete against one another. If all women work in every household, that additional income does not benefit the household because every other household has the same additional income. The government's Gross Domestic Product would go up for the entire nation, which would make us a greater country economic wise, but on the microlevel, it doesn't do anything besides requiring the household to now work 80 hours a week, instead of 40 hours a week.
But recently, you're now seeing a shift towards each household only working 40+ hours a week, because no one is getting married, which is encouraged by our economic, social, and legal system.