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The Steady Rise of Divorce Rates

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Prior to 1950s, divorce used to be difficult to obtain and people rarely get divorce due to their religion and their beliefs. eople were looked down on if they were divorced and it was impossible for them to remarry in church. (Bare RE) Nowadays, people become more and more open-minded. They try to accept new ideas and are more acceptive to minority. Divorce become a normal part of life. However, there are several reasons that cause the increasingly acceptance of the divorce beside religious reason. First, people starts to pursue harmony and put happiness in their first place. In order to seek happier lives for themselves, they take commitment less and less seriously and choose not to solve problems but go directly into divorce. Next, women no longer accepted gender inequality, which ultimately alter the expectations of marriage. Moreover, the divorce laws became less and less strict that make divorce easier and less costly. Prior to 1960s, people can only end the marriage if people can provide proofs of their spouses guilt of marital misconduct. This is very time consuming and expensive process since he/she would have to hire an attorney for the trial and pay a extreme large amount of money for investigation and requests for evidence. So what has caused the divorce rate dramatically increase after the late 1960s? There is several answers to this question and one of them is the no-fault divorce law. From the late 1960s, U.S governments has began to accept the no-fault divorce. It is a concept that is less restrictive. Marriage couple can now divorce without the consent of both spouses and does not need to conduct any faults. No-fault divorce law might logically lead us to expect an increase in the divorce rates because it has reduced the legal obstacles, the economic costs, and the psychological consequences of divorce. said Nakonezny, Shull and Rodgers (Journal of Marriage and Family ,478) Despite no-fault divorce might not be the only reason that cost an increase in divorce rate, it is greatly contributed to the divorce rate. The various researches has showed that from 1960 to 1980, the U.S. divorce rate has almost double. Moreover, Douglas W. Allen and Maggie Gallagher also stated that studies estimate no-fault divorce increased divorce rate on the order of 5 to 30 percent. (Does Divorce Law Affect the Divorce Rate?, 4) There are many reasons people get divorce. Young age marriage, marriage with low education or low inc

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