70% of Divorces Initiated by Women – Here Are the Results

Intellectual Takeout ^ | May 20, 2025 | Annie Holmquist

[DoodleBob]

‘Tis the season for weddings, and chances are the next several weeks will find many of us sitting in a lovely venue, decked in our best, watching a man and a woman pledge themselves to one another for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health.

The good news is that more of these sweet couples may remain true to their vows. Statistics from the Census Bureau show that U.S. divorce rates have dropped from 10.0 in 2008 to 7.0 in 2022. Although that drop could be caused by other factors (such as increased cohabitation rates), it is an encouraging statistic.

What’s not encouraging, however, is the statistic showing which partner tends to initiate divorce. Data shows that roughly 70% of divorces are now initiated by women. Each of us can likely affirm this number just from our own circle of friends – indeed, most of the divorces I’ve known about in the last decade were more prone to be instigated by the wife than the husband.

That’s tragic, particularly since many of these divorces seem to stem from boredom or dissatisfaction with the partner rather than truly dangerous situations where the wife must leave the marriage for safety’s sake. What’s even more tragic is that these same women, in instigating divorce, often seem to ignore the effects their choice will have on their offspring.

Just how negative the effects of divorce are on children is shown in a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The data presented only serves to underscore that divorce is a major blow to the stability of a child’s life … and the ripples of that instability will only spread as that child grows. Here are just a few of those negative effects:

• Median income in married-parent families registers around $70,000 per year. That drops to just over $40,000 for divorced-parent families.
• A decline in financial resources leads to other issues, one of which is less time with mom and dad, as both are forced to work more to cover costs. NBER finds that “mothers work 8 percent more hours after divorce, and fathers work 16 percent more after divorce.”
• Fewer resources also means poorer living situations, the report explains. “Even a decade later, children’s neighborhoods remain significantly below their pre-divorce quality.”
• This lack of time with parents and poorer living circumstances can naturally lead children to fall into bad company. Children from divorced homes experience a 63% increase in teen births, and “a 33 to 60 percent increase in incarceration likelihood” if they were between ages 5 and 20 when the divorce happened.

These are points of fact, scientifically presented by a leading research organization. Yet sadly, many seem to turn a blind eye to them, convincing themselves and others that their children will be far better off with divorced parents. Evidence of this tendency is seen in an X post highlighting the study where many commenters were left seemingly justifying divorce and trying to cast shade on the study’s results.

This reaction fits perfectly with what G. K. Chesterton said. “The definition of divorce, which concerns us here, is that it is the attempt to give respectability, and not liberty,” Chesterton wrote in “The Superstition of Divorce.”

Many women (and men, too) convince themselves that they will be free — free to live, laugh, and love as they want — if they only divorce their spouse and start fresh. But as the statistics above show, bondage, not liberty, is pretty much the assured outcome of divorce for both parents and especially children. And I would argue that this bondage extends beyond children to the nation as a whole.

Why is this?

“Marriage makes a small state within the state, which resists all such regimentation,” Chesterton writes.

That bond breaks all other bonds; that law is found stronger than all later and lesser laws. They desire the democracy to be sexually fluid, because the making of small nuclei is like the making of small nations. Like small nations, they are a nuisance to the mind of imperial scope. In short, what they fear, in the most literal sense, is home rule.

In essence, Chesterton is saying the family is a small nation, and the more we have of these tiny nations functioning properly and refusing to break apart, the more we as a large nation are able to resist tyranny, government overreach, and other breaches of our freedom.

It’s highly unpopular to question divorce these days simply because it’s an issue that affects many. None of us want to admit that our personal actions may have led to deleterious bondage being placed on many others. But if we want to push back on the tyranny and government overreach that has persisted in recent years, do we need to recognize that seemingly small, individual decisions – such as the decision to pursue divorce freely and fully – may be playing a larger part in the gradual loss of freedom the nation as a whole is experiencing?

—

The republication of this article is made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal. 

[DoodleBob]

I blame the women AND men.

There are ways to slow a divorce initiated by a woman, if the husband WANTS to do so.

Divorce is THE most destructive element to the family and society….more than the gays, more than Ukraine, more than

The progressive era and the advent of socialism brought on by the Depression got that started. Marriage became disposable…it is reversible, it can be undone. It’s caustic to women, and quoth Marx and Engels, “(t)he bourgeois sees his wife as a mere instrument of production. He hears that the instruments of production are to be exploited in common, and, naturally, can come to no other conclusion than that the lot of being common to all will likewise fall to the women.”

We need to get people into a pre-1934 marriage mindset. From there, children can grow up in a home that isn’t lead by hypocrites, where religion is seen as VITAL as opposed to a buffet where they can pick and choose morality.

[KC_Conspirator]

A system that rewards one gender for behaving badly and not holding their end of the contract.

[DoodleBob]

Agreed. Men who cheat or drink but refuse to reform are despicable.

[Responsibility2nd]

~~~~ getting popcorn ~~~~~

[MinorityRepublican]

We need to get people into a pre-1934 marriage mindset.

It appeared that we did better without marriage licenses before 1934.

It's always a bad thing once the government gets involved in something.

[Responsibility2nd]

I blame the women AND men.

How about the state and federal government which subsidizes and encourages divorce?

Denying welfare bennies to single moms would cut the number of divorces by the millions.

But that would lead to healthy happy families and a more prosperous nation. Can't have that, now can we?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

70% of Divorces Initiated by Women

Women marry men thinking they'll change.

Men marry women thinking they won't.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Whose at fault in a lesbian divorce?

[wjcsux]

LBJ’s “war on poverty” lit the fuze.

[MinorityRepublican]

I blame the women AND men.

[af_vet_1981]

There are ways to slow a divorce initiated by a woman, if the husband WANTS to do so.

Perhaps slow it down but not prevent it; it used to be a man's sin but now women have increased it so that society is becoming increasingly wicked until there is no remedy.

Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?


Malachi 2:
[13] And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.
[14] Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
[15] And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
[16] For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.

[rdcbn1]

70% of women initiate divorce.

65% of those women fie for divorce file because they are bored or “just not happy”

If you ask quite a few women why they divorced their husbands they really have no good answer.

It’s a first world problem

[Mark17]

Ping

[FamiliarFace]

In my family, it’s 50/50. Half the time they were initiated by the women, and the other half, initiated by the men.

[T Ruth]

From the graph you posted, it looks like the gap between the rate of marriage and divorce really began to narrow in the sixties and has continued to narrow since then.

On May 9, 1960, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the world’s first commercially produced birth-control pill.

Development of “the pill,” as it became popularly known, was initially commissioned by birth-control pioneer Margaret Sanger and funded by heiress Katherine McCormick.

By 1980 the ratio became one divorce for every two marriages.

[tumblindice]

The woman, 100% of the time.

[DIRTYSECRET]

You must all acknowledge we’re living in a man’s world. Men get to have all the fun and all the inventions such as computers and viagra are toys made by and for men. Thanks to feminism, the pill, and gainful employment one can’t blame women for not wanting to putting up with it anymore.

**Who’s at fault in a lesbian divorce?**
The non-butch.

[tet68]

Whose at fault?

The other woman of course!!!

What does a lesbian bring on a second date?

A U-Haul !!!

[T.B. Yoits]

[T.B. Yoits]

"I heard your wife ran away with your best friend yesterday. Since when is he your best friend?"

"Since yesterday."