ABSTRACT
Divorce provides a solution to one set of problems while creating others. This difficulty has lent the long-standing debate over divorce a special poignancy. This chapter explains why divorce rates have risen over time, despite the negative consequences that divorce entails—especially for women and children. The point of this analysis is not to explain why particular individuals obtain divorces; it is, rather, to understand changes in the frequency of this behavior. The transition in family life fostered by the feminist movement affects the divorce rate because it implies that men and women are equal partners who join together, or not, as they wish. Simmel's theoretical explanation, along with the structural analysis presented earlier, implies that a high divorce rate may be neither an anomaly nor even a flaw in family life today; it may be, in fact, an essential feature of modern societies. The chapter suggests that eliminating divorce is not a viable policy option in today's world.
