05 October, 2007

America’s Divorce Myth

Justin Wolfers, guest-blogging on Marginal Revolution, points out that it is a myth that divorce rates in America are rising. On the contrary, he writes, divorce rates in the US have actually been falling over the last 25 years. He discusses possible reasons why the opposite perception is so prevalent.

What particularly interests me, though, is why the divorce rates are falling. Could it be because people are simply becoming more and more wary of marriage?

To my knowledge no such survey exists in India, but if it did, I think it would find that divorce rates have gone up in the last couple of decades. This would not be due to ‘family values’ being eroded or ‘the influence of Western culture’, two commonly trotted out, simplisitic explanations. Instead, here are a couple of possible reasons: One, women in India are gradually beginning to have more options of what to do with their lives, and thus find it easier to walk out of a bad marriage. Two, with more women in the workplace, the sexes interact much more frequently than they once did, which opens up possibilities that once did not exist.

I’m speculating, of course.

Also read: A New York Times Op-Ed on the subject by Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson.