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Divorce in the US – A Short History
Millions of Americans have gone through the very personal experience of divorce. 10% of American adults have dealt with broken marriages. The most recently reported dissolution rate for the United States is 3.6 per thousand; which is over 900,000 per year. 9.2% of American households are run by single mothers, and 1.9% by single fathers.
Divorce has been a choice for those living in the United States for just a brief time as compared to the country’s existence. Settlers of early America carried with them English laws allowing marriages to only be dissolved only if one partner could prove genuine fault with their partner, moreover, marriages could only be dissolved legislatively. Adultery, regular drunkenness, intolerable cruelty, desertion, and impotence were among the grounds that were usually accepted. States have wanted ending a marriage to be hard so they enforced mandatory proof of dissertations on court.
In addition, the partner suing to end the marriage couldn’t personally be guilty of any grounds for dissolution. The decree might be denied by the courts if he or she was found guilty of, for example: contributing to the cause of the break-up, conspiring with the other party to provide grounds, or having forgiven similar behavior in the past. When a marriage ended, the father typically retained custody of any children, adding to the reluctance of many women to sue for dissolution of a marriage.
There was no place in 1800′s society for ex-wives to exist. Even naming them was rather difficult for a while. Members of the middle and upper classes called a married woman by her husband’s name “ie Mrs. John Smith”, she kept this name even if her husband died and only changed it if she became married again. A woman whose marriage had ended could never resume “Miss” or her maiden name. Moreover, she had to change her name from “Mrs. John Smith,” to avoid having to face another woman with the same name in the same social group if her ex-husband, Mr. Smith, took another wife. The compromise was for a woman to go by Mrs “Maiden Name” “Married Name”—so if she had been Betty Jones and married John Smith, she would be called Mrs Jones Smith henceforth.
Over time, many Americans began to think that the old ways of dissolving marriages were a problem and overall ineffective. In the early twentieth century, Nevada became one of the first states to offer an easy decree to end a marriage, as long as the person was a resident in the state for at least six weeks before the decree. Restrictions on divorce are stricter in eastern states like Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts, and a minor industry arose around hosting people from those states.
By the 1950s, it was possible to obtain a no-fault divorce in the majority of US states. Roles for women were changing in addition. As better jobs became available to women, it was becoming more practical for single women to support themselves and their children. Also, people’s feelings concerning ending a marriage were changing. There was once a strong stigma attached to women who had left their marriage, as well as to the children of a “broken home.” Gradually, these attitudes eroded as single-parent homes or households with unmarried parents became common. It is estimated that approximately 28% of all children live in a home with only one parent.
Even though divorce is still a hard and hurtful process for those going through it, a lot has changed in the past 200 years, making it a feasible choice for Americans. Ending a marriage no longer requires acts of the legislature, detectives, or the wife’s automatic loss of custody, but the process remains a long and complicated one.
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