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Old 08-25-2017, 02:13 AM   #42
Oling_Roachinen
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Actually it's been theorized that it has to do quite a bit with women rights.

In the 1970s, when divorce rates peaked. The obvious changes to the marriage laws played a part (no fault divorce, the fact you didn't need to prove adultery in some places) which made divorce more readily available and therefore less stigmatized. But you also had women who had spent their lives thinking they had to be a wife, and only a wife, for their breadwinner husband. Then there was a shifting time. In the 60s when you had 30% of women going to college, now saw that spike to over 50% for the first time in the late 70s. They were no longer just to be homemakers, but it was possible to be professionals, which caused strain on marriages for men who hadn't caught up to the times as the ladies found their own ambitions. Earlier than that you were even more of a pariah if you got divorced, so you had a lot of marriages "catching up" as divorce became easier and more normalized in the 70s.

But by the 1990s, men were less "caught off guard" when they found out their wife wanted a career. They knew of their ambitions and they knew they were entering into an equal partnership. Not to mention the double income provided less of a strain on the marriage due to money-issues. Now the lowest rate of divorce is among women with a college degree and an established career prior to marriage with around 20%. Which follows the logic, as the men marrying those women should have appreciated their independence.

Of course there's also society changes. Back in the day banging a random in a drive-in meant no condoms or birth control (didn't want to burn in hell for all eternity) and baby out of wedlock was a no-go, so any accidents resulted in marriage. Now we can happily bang some hotties without worrying that we'll have to get married in 3 months if the woman ends up showing.

What's been really propping up the rate today is multi-time divorces. A person who gets married fives times and is divorced 5 times counts the same when talking about divorce rates as any other 5 divorces. But the percentage of previously unwed couples who marry today and end up divorced is about 30%.
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