Pam Edmonds

Ms. Hooks
English 101
November 7, 2013
Till Divorce Do Us Part
Abstract: In 1900 America, the divorce rate was only 7%. Today the United

States has one of the highest divorce rates in the Western World with 40-50%

or marriages ending in divorce. This will explore the factors in our country

today that have caused such a dramatic change in the past one hundred

years.
Divorce is a well-known concept to us today. It has become a regular

occurrence in our society. It is easy to forget that it was not always this way,

and that divorce has both affected and been affected by many different

aspects of life such as childbearing, dating, and religion. Although individual

casesincluding some in my own personal experienceend positively,

divorce is mainly looked at as a sad thing. If it was not, todays marriage

ceremonies would not be such happy celebrations. Divorce is becoming more

common because of todays society treating marriage less sacred.

Regaining the brains normal chemical balance after the bliss of new

love is often a disappointment to new couples and can even lead to divorce.

During the first stage of attraction between a couple, the brain produces

more adrenaline, causing a rise in energy and excitement and dopamine, the

reward and motivation chemical in the brain. Women experience a rise is

testosterone, which causes a stronger sex drive. Within less than a year this

playfully named Honeymoon phase ends and the chemical serotonin kicks

in. The serotonin inhibits the extra production of adrenaline and dopamine.

Divorce is most common among new marriageswithin the first eight years

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of marriagenot long after the couples excess of adrenaline production has

stopped. This phenomenon supports the statistic that the United States has a

40-50% divorce rate. According to the Encyclopedia of American Studies by

the John Hopkins University Press, At the beginning of the twentieth century,

one American child in ten lived in a single-parent home, giving the United

States the highest divorce rate in the Western world. This process of

chemical re-balance is often mistaken for a loss of love and is easily used as

a basis for divorce because divorce is so much more socially acceptable

today than it was two hundred years ago.

In pre-1900 America, women had very little say in their marriages.

Especially for the poor working class, women were pressured into marriage

on the basis of economic assurance for them and their families. Divorce was

only granted on the grounds of adultery or abandonment and usually was

only granted to men. Divorce then was rare, and even by 1900 the divorce

rate was only seven percent. Before the World War II era, women were not a

part of the workforce. Womens main, if not only role in society was to be

married young and begin having children and raise a family. But as we know,

because of the lack of manpower during World War II, women began

integrating into the workforce to eventually become the powerful force they

are in almost every industry today. This has caused the women of America to

gain well-deserved power in the workforce, but has made many women put

starting a family on the backburner. DVera Cohn provides the shocking

statistic that 59% of 18-29 year olds were married in 1960 in contrast to the

20% in 2010. But this rising marriage age doesnt help women who do

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eventually want children, seeing as women have a limited number of

childbearing years.
Many women who want families begin nearing the end of their

childbearing years without a serious partner. This can easily cause a couple

to rush into a marriage, sacrificing the crucial dating and engagement period

of the relationship. In 2006 the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale reported

952 southern California participants found a positive correlation between

courtship period and marital satisfaction and a negative correlation between

courtship period and incidences of divorce. It was concluded that a longer

courtship period leads to a higher level of later marital satisfaction. The pre-

marriage stage of the relationship gives a couple time to figure out if they

truly do want to spend the rest of their life together and have the same

ideals about raising children. My parents were one of these couples that

rushed into a marriage wanting children. They were both already in their

thirties when they were married. Both knew they wanted children but neither

had a serious partner. They had four children, but by the time my youngest

brother Peter was born my mother was forty-one. Her doctors were very

nervous about her delivering a baby at such a late age, seeing as the risk for

complications is significantly higher as a woman gets older. Although the

birth had no complications, I can understand how my parents felt the

pressure of a fleeting opportunity to have a family.

Church attendance has a profound correlation with a reduced

probability of divorce. A. Mahoney explains the term religious familism as

the ideology that the family is the precious central unit of society and should

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be governed by religious morals. Christian denominations of churches have

taught this sacredness of marriage for many years. Personally growing up in

an Evangelical Presbyterian Church, I grew up hearing this doctrine. When

my mother and father got divorced and my mother got remarried, she was

reprimanded by the church, maybe even excommunicated. It was a very big

deal to my family and to our home church. There has been a significant

decline in regular church attendance in our country. Today only about twenty

percent of the population in the United States attends a Christian church on

any given weekend. This statistic put together with the correlation between

church attendance and divorce probability would lend itself to be a

significant factor in the rise in divorce rates in the United States.

I will not say whether or not divorce is a good or bad thing. I know that

my parents ended up much happier apart than they did together. However,

the rapid increase of divorce in this country is cause for concern. People

didnt all of a sudden stop loving one anotherthe sacredness of marriage is

the factor that changed. Because divorce no longer has the stigma it once

did, it is ultra-accessible. There is no longer as strong a push or need to solve

marital issues. People are not urged by a church official to avoid divorce. The

rush of our lives have caused us to stop taking the crucial time to get to

know someone enough to truly commit our lives to them.

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