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Marriage and Divorce in the Post Victorian Era
Marriage is a social structure. When couples get married they enter into a relationship that is societally recognized and to some degree societally regulated. Laws, customs, traditions and cultural assumptions are intrinsically involved in defining the path that a marriage will take. In the late 19th century many Americans had to come to terms in some way with the societal expectations of marriage, guided by the Victorian mores. But as the 20th century began these elements began to evolve. As personal expectations became more important societal expectations lost prevalence.
The laws and regulations of the 1920's succeeded in making it more difficult to obtain a divorce. More conservative states in the East limited divorce to only two or three complaints, adultery or abandonment were the most common. But this red tape did not slow down the rapidly accelerating rate of divorce in the 1920's. Especially in the more liberal West was divorce becoming a more usual case. The state of California and the state of New Jersey were the center of May's Great Expectations.
California was settled by Victorians, many of who were European immigrants who moved to California from the mid-West. Other Victorians were native-born white Protestant Americans from the middle class. These men and women believed that independence and self denial would lead to progress. Most of these people were well to do merchants and professionals, who had economic autonomy. This Victorian culture encouraged domestic morality.
During this time there were clearly defined sex roles. The husband served as the sole provider and the wife took care of the home, children and volunteer work at the c...
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... with the lifestyle that their husband was providing for them. Some of these cases were granted to the men and other to the women. Women often desired a divorce from husband who tried to force them to go to work. These women felt that their husband was unwilling to simply provide for his family, most of these women were granted the divorces.
Elaine Tyler May did a great job of backing up all of these ideas with many cases from California and a few from New Jersey. This may assume that all California and New Jersey accurately represented America. Perhaps May should have instead sub-titled her book Marriage & Divorce in Post-Victorian California. I am sure that most of these same trends were spread all over the nation but there may have been other causes that May did not touch on.
Bibliography:
Great Expectations, Elaine Tyler May
I read that 1.6 out of 1,000 people were divorced in the 1930s. Wildcatters, rig builders, roustabouts, and others rushed into oil fields looking for work. That meant that oil workers had to leave their wives with the children for months and months at a time. That is why the divorce rates were very high in the 1930s. Husbands would move away to go to work and not bring any of the family. Most of the times husbands or wives would file a divorce so they could focus on their job instead of their family.
...ight to vote further reflects social change during 1919. Also, despite marriage rates peaking at 1920 and decreasing to 1930, divorce rates still gradually increased despite the drop in marriage rates (H). This statistic suggests the increase in independence from men as the traditional patriarch of the family and the rise of the matriarch.
Dating back to the early 20th century, women’s roles in the United States were very limited. In regards to family life, women were expected to cook, clean, and take care of their homes. Men, on the other hand, were in charge of working and providing for the family. Together, these designated roles helped men and women build off of each other to ultimately keep their families in check. As the years progressed, society began to make a greater push to increase women’s rights. As women started receiving greater equality and freedom, their roles began to shift. More women had to opportunity to leave the house and join the workforce. The norm for a married couple slowly began to change as men were no longer expected to individually provide for their
Marriage is the legal or formally recognized union of a man and a woman, or two people or the same sex as partners in a relationship. Marriage rates in the United States have changed drastically since the last 90’s and early 2000 years (Cherlin 2004). Marital decline perspective and marital resilience perspective are the two primary perspectives and which we believe are the results from the decline. The marital decline perspective is the view that the American culture has become increasingly individualistic and preoccupied with personal happiness (Amato, 2004). The change in attitudes has changed the meaning of marriage as a whole, from a formal institution
The major movement regarding marriage in the eighteenth century was from church to state. Marital laws and customs, once administered and governed by the church, increasingly came to be controlled by legislators who passed many laws restricting the circumstances and legality of marriages. These restrictions tended to represent the interests of the wealthy and uphold patriarchal tradition. Backlash to these restrictions produced a number of undesirable practices, including promiscuity, wife-sale, and divorce.
There was a time when women typically maintained the home and raised children while the husbands were the sole bread-winners for the family finances. However, times have changed and so have women’s rights and expectations for divorce, education, an...
...ct religious rules and less prejudice against divorced people have made it easier for people to end unhappy marriage. The suburban population boomed, fueled by a growing economy, city residents moved to the suburbs to fulfill dreams of home ownership and to flee crime and congestion. Employment outside the home made a big difference in American women and mothers’ lives, giving them self-confidence as well as economic independence. All of the above mentioned facts indicate that the American society had changed.
Although changes have been made to Jewish divorce laws, women are continually being mistreated when dealing with the issues of divorce. In biblical times, there were no assurances that women would be protected when faced with a man who wanted a divorce. Furthermore, women were not allowed to initiate the process by asking for one. As time went on, it was recognized that women needed to be somewhat shielded from actions that her husband could take, which she had no control over. Rabbinic law made four major changes to help the plight of women regarding divorce (Biale p.5).
The rate of divorce rose during these times as well. The young generation had stopped living their lives according to traditional society values and had inserted their own sets of desires, goals, and values by which to live instead.
Timing Effects on Divorce: 20th Century Experience in the United States. " Journal of Marriage and Family 68 (2006): 749-58. Coltrane, Scott, and Michele Adams. " The Social Construction of the Divorce "Problem": Morality, Child Victims, and the Politics of Gender.
Since males acquired all the assets and children during a divorce, a woman’s only hope to gain freedom and assets was to rel...
A divorce was almost unheard of in the 1960's unless there was truly a good reason. Today, women work for themselves, make their own money and raise a child all by them selves.
In the early 1900’s divorce rates were low and you could not get a divorce without showing significant proof of abuse, abandonment, or adultery. In the nineteenth century, society individuals did not think too much about the importance of love and compassion in a marriage. It was
Robson, Ruthann. "The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History: Marriage." Houghton Mifflin Study Center. 19 Nov. 2005. http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/women/html/wh_022200_marriage.htm.
During Hardy's time, divorce wasn't as prevalent as it is today, and usually only wealthy men were able to leave their wives. A man could divorce his wife on grounds as simple as adultery, while a woman had to prove cruelty, rape, sodomy, incest or big...