Women and Divorce

The suffering of women has gone on for centuries; this has slowly diminished but still exists in today’s society. Although women have their own rights and freedom they can still come across problems like the repercussions of divorce. In this sticky topic of divorce we sometimes don’t think about the whole process and how exactly all parties involved are affected and what kind of double standards are in place. Divorce affects all of the people involved but none more harshly than women and children due to poverty. This will be underlined by analyzing the situation to those affected by divorce, models of the family and thoughts and proposals/solutions on family law.

In divorce there is believed to be a huge double standard in the fact that the woman basically gets the short end of the stick. In a household a mother usually takes care of the children and the father usually brings home the economic value, in the event that a mother also provides economic value its usually not as much as the fathers. If by divorce all material items are split up in half, and the mother usually gets the child, now the mother is working with less than half the income their used to for the support of her children and only half of the material everyday things. Assuming that the mother is the primary caregiver, she now has a lot of things to deal with. Along with the many steps of divorce she will have to take care of her children and look for a new place to live once their house is sold and find a job if she is a stay at home caregiver. Once divorced the male takes his larger income and doesn’t have to spend it on his children anymore and therefore has less responsibility and a less likely chance of turning to poverty.

With understanding divorce you need to know the history behind the event and what specific models are involved. There are three models of the family which I will be display to highlight its effect on divorce and how it leads to women and child poverty. The first model is called the patriarchal model of the family which basically states that the household the father is responsible for the economic well-being, the mother is responsible for the household and personal care of family members while the father is not. In this model the state will replace the father’s financial contributions if he can’t make his financial contribution to the family. This model is what the general template for most families of the middle class society of today. This brings us to the second family model; the individual responsibility model of the family. This model is more common nowadays and it comes down to gender equality both parents are equally responsible for the care of themselves, each other and other family members as well as economic support. This model seems ideal for a healthy living environment and in my opinion is the best of the three models but the only downside is that this makes societal contribution a bare minimum to a family of this model. The final model being examined is the social responsibility model of the family which seems like the least exercised model of the three. This model states that every adult is responsible for their own economic well-being, in the case that they cannot do so the state will provide. If an adult is in need of care because of illness or handicap the state will pay for the cost of the care, and the cost of