Marriage and Divorce and the Way They Impact Women

There are a lot of factors that contribute to the reason why divorce has increased in the last twenty years. Some argue financial difficulty, serious illness, career failure, job loss, or even midlife crisis. Rarely does a person hear the possibility that it is because women have become more independent. A woman’s role in today’s marriage has changed drastically from the past. Women are evolving into being more independent outside the marriage. Women now have the same rights as men; therefore, they have more independence and impacts the way they view marriage and divorce. At the turn of the 20th century, if women found they were not happy in their marriage, they began to explore other options. Women decided that divorce was a viable option in order to get out of an unhappy marriage; consequently, the number of divorces grew. No matter how independent women have become, there is still inequality that puts men in front of women when divorce is involved. Women that choose divorce seem to suffer more financially because the workforce still pays men more than women in most careers. Women who opt for divorce and have children run a higher chance of poverty due to lower income compounded by the need to pay for childcare. In a situation where the husband’s income is relied upon, a no fault divorce can contribute to a woman’s struggle after divorce. Often after divorce women are poverty stricken. Men may be required to pay alimony and child support; however some fail to do so. To understand how the roles of women have evolved in today’s society, one has to look at the roles they played in history. Women later on in our history advocated for their rights because they were perceived below the man. They were not deserving of a higher education; their husband spoke for the both of them, and women had no input about