[Previous entry: "EXCLUSIVE: Adam Gadahn, The American goat farmer turned Islamic Extremist"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Conservatives would dump corporate welfare"]

05/27/2004 Archived Entry: "Study: After 40, it's the wives who want divorce"

Posted by steve @ 04:18 PM EST [Link]

NEWS TO EVERYBODY BUT ME: A new study reports that in divorces after the age of 40, 2/3rds of the time it is the woman who initiates the divorce proceeding. The old story of the man exchanging his 40 for a pair of twenties is largely just that, a story.

Duh.

I've long believed -- without empirical evidence to back me up, mind you -- that once a man reaches his 40s he realizes that true happiness isn't drinking, women and nights he can't remember. He knows that real happiness can only be found with a woman he loves and a couple of kids. That necessarily means that most men in this situation wouldn't divorce their wives because at that age they aren't likely to replicate this life and they are genuinely satisfied with their lives.

Ok, you're asking, why would a woman who has little chance of rebuilding her life with a new marriage (and no chance what-so-ever at having children again) divorce her husband while in her 40s? Why would she give up what most women want? According to the AARP study "most women said they filed for divorces because of physical or emotional abuse, infidelity or drug and alcohol abuse."

For men, on the other hand, "they fell out love, they had different values or lifestyles or infidelity." For the most part, a different order of problems.

Read on.