ABSTRACT
California adopted the first unequivocal no-fault divorce statute in the United States. All the other states and the District of Columbia enacted similar statutes establishing "irretrievable breakdown" or "incompatibility" as the only grounds for divorce or adding these to the preexisting fault grounds. The no-fault divorce laws have had dramatic and often unexpected financial effects on families in general and women in particular in dismantling a system that had been based essentially on mutual consent. This system had protected parties who had relied on their marriage continuing, but no-fault divorce reduced this protection and the resulting negotiating power of the spouse who did not want to dissolve the marriage, usually the wife. Both women and families are worse off. No-fault divorce has resulted in a decline in the welfare of divorced women and the children of divorced parents. Less obvious, but also substantial, has been the effect of no-fault divorce on families that stay married.
