TILL PAPERS DO US PART

While divorce is a messy subject and carries stigma across much of the nation, it makes for a noteworthy story in the history of the United States.

As it currently stands, approximately 50% of marriages in the U.S. end in divorce, with marriages lasting a median length of 11 years. The history of divorce in the U.S. has relatively strong links to progressive movements of the past and while divorce may still be a nasty business, the evolution of divorce law has been an indicator of social changes and acceptance for different views on marriage.

While (widespread) acceptance of divorce seems to be a fairly new phenomenon, the earliest sign of increasing acceptance for divorce seems to have originated in the late 1800s, with the goal of absolving dissatisfactory marriages. Despite this, early traces of women’s rights movements seemed to have mixed opinions, with Antoinette Brown Blackwell stating that, “All divorce is naturally and morally impossible” during the 1860 National Women’s Rights Convention, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton giving a speech that addressed objections to divorce.

Despite such conflicting opinions on divorce in relation to women’s rights during the 19th century, the National Woman Suffrage Movement advocated for marriage and divorce reform. While divorces slowly became more common, what prevented many more from occurring was that most states in the U.S. had only a “fault divorce” law, where one of the two parties had to be “at fault” in order to legally pursue a divorce. 

While the acceptance of divorce became more common across the U.S. in the 20th century, the idea of a “no-fault” divorce had not yet come to fruition yet. It was generally considered against the state interest to have divorces, and in an attempt to prevent them, some states introduced “trial marriages.”  These allowed couples to live together without being married for a certain period of time.

Regardless, because of the lack of a no-fault divorce system in the early 20th century, couples seeking a divorce had to wait for a fault in the divorce – most often (and easily) adultery  – or had to lie convincingly to the court, as most courts refused to grant divorce based on so-called “manufactured reasons.”

A little farther down the road, the concept of the no-fault divorce was introduced in 1969 in California by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, which enabled divorce to be more accessible to individuals seeking to split from their partners. Following successful passage of reform legislation the following year, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research “[no-fault] divorce laws saw total female suicide decline by around 20 percent in the long run,” as many other states would follow suit.

Perhaps in the age of acceptance, when it comes to acknowledging separation as a method to get out of an unhappy marriage, the stigma against divorce might disappear. After all, the conservative view of whether marital happiness alone is worth aspiring for has changed over time.

In addition, the change from a single-fault divorce to no-fault divorce law has been a significant factor in altering views of marriage as even after that change, the concept of a two-party-fault divorce was not yet considered a valid reason for legal dissolution.

All-in-all, the trend is that the stigma of divorce will be erased as time goes by, if history is used as a guide.