Wednesday, September 09, 2009

'The Evolution of Divorce'   [Maggie Gallagher]

Brad Wilcox has a new essay in the spanking-new journal, National Affairs, entitled "The Evolution of Divorce." Divorce rates have plunged for the college educated as rates of marital happiness have stabilized. Meanwhile, for the rest of America, marital unhappiness is up and so is divorce.

Why the divorce divide? Professor Wilcox theorizes that soul-mate marriage — marriage stripped of most institutuional supports and depending more entirely on the special emotional bond of both partners — requires emotional, social, and finanical capital that the less-educated lack.

Hmm, we used to think that property made people soulless, relatively speaking. Soul-matedness was considered the special province of the penniless artiste. Now, bo-hos rule.

And children of the less advantaged are doubly disadvantaged by divorce.

09/09 09:05 AMShare