DIVORCEin divorce outstripped the increase in population
several times.
A number of factors have been identified as
causes of such dramatic increases. In part, these
can be described as social changes, which made
marriage less essential. The growth of wage labor
in the nineteenth century afforded women an
alternative to economic dependence on a hus-
band. In an economy dominated by individuals
rather than families, marriage was simply less es-
sential. Life as a single individual gradually lost its
legal or social stigma (New England settlements
had forbidden solitary dwelling while southern
communities had taxed it heavily).
More important, however, were fundamental
shifts in the meaning of marriage. Divorce codes
reflected the growing belief that marriages should
be imbued with heavy doses of affection and equali-
ty. Divorce grounds of cruelty or lack of support
indicate that marriage was increasingly viewed as a
partnership. Where a century earlier men had
been granted greater discretion in their personal
lives, latter nineteenth-century morality attacked
such double standards. Men were not necessarily
less culpable than women for their vices. Victorian
morality stressed the highest standards of sexual
behavior for both husbands and wives. Changing
divorce codes coincided with the passage of laws
restricting husbands’ unilateral control over their
wifes’ property. The passage of married women’s
property acts throughout the nation in the latter
nineteenth century acknowledged married wom-
en’s claims to property brought to or acquired in
marriage. By 1887, thirty-three states and the Dis-
trict of Columbia gave married women control
over their property and earnings (Degler 1980, p. 332).
Divorce codes including omnibus grounds such
as ‘‘cruelty’’ (which could justify a divorce from a
drunkard husband, for example) may be viewed as
reflecting a Victorian American belief that women
were morally sensitive and fragile, and in need of
protection (Phillips 1988, p. 500). More particular-
ly, the growing use of offenses against the intimate
and emotional aspects of marriage reflected a
growing belief that such things constituted matri-
monial essentials. If a failure of intimacy could
justify the dissolution of a marriage, then intimacy
may be viewed as a core expectation of marriage.
The Twentieth Century. The first half of the
twentieth century was a continuation of trends
established in the latter nineteenth century. Two
world wars and the Great Depression interrupted
gradually increasing divorce rates, however. Dur-
ing each war and during the Depression, divorce
rates dropped. After each, rates soared before
falling to levels somewhat higher than that which
preceded these events. Sociological explanations
for these trends focus on women’s employment
opportunities. Women’s labor force participation
permits the termination of intolerable unions. The
separations, hastily timed marriages, and sexual
misalliances characteristic of wartime were also
undoubtedly factors in the post-war divorces rates.
Further, the increases in divorce following these
difficult times may be seen, in part, as a delayed
reaction. Once the Depression or war was over,
the reservoir of impending divorces broke. And
finally, postwar optimism and affluence may have
contributed to an unwillingness to sustain an un-
happy marriage.The second half of the century witnessed even
more dramatic increases in divorce. With the ex-
ception of the peculiar 1950s (for an explanation
of this anomaly, see Cherlin 1992), the trend for
the second half of the 1900s was a regular and
exponential growth in divorce until around 1980,
at which point the increase stopped.Though specific explanations for the increase
in divorces during the twentieth century vary,
several themes may be noted. First, marriage has
lost much of its central economic and social signifi-
cance—especially for women. For example, di-
vorce was undoubtedly inhibited by the fact that
prior to the twentieth century, custody of children
was uniformly awarded to fathers (since they were
legally responsible for financial support). With the
acceptance of Freudian ideas of psychosexual de-
velopment and similar ideas about intellectual and
cognitive growth, the so-called Tender Years Doc-
trine became accepted practice in courts during
the early 1900s which then awarded custody to
mothers as regularly as they had once done to
fathers. And as it became more commonplace,
remarriage began to lose some of its stigma. All
these changes made it possible for women to
divorce their husbands if they wished. But why did
so many wish to obtain divorces?The simplest explanation is that more divorce
is a consequence of higher expectations of mar-
riage. More and more grounds for divorce are