In the last two decades, income equality has been all over the news and the internet, and how it causes economic and social problems for women and their families. In the 1950s, single women sought breadwinners and single men sought homemakers, but now that it’s the 21st Century, we’ve seen a societal shift.
While it’s still most common for men to earn more than women across most industries, we have more women earning college degrees and entering the workforce than ever before. Women are no longer relying on men to financially support them the way they did in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. In other words, the pay gap among genders is slowly getting smaller and it has poured over into divorce proceedings.
Fundamentals of Marriage Are Changing
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 47 percent of workers in the United States are women, 77 percent of mothers with children under the age of 18 work, and over 75 percent of those work full-time. What’s more, mothers are the breadwinners in 40 percent of U.S. households, but in 1960 that figure was only 11 percent. Since the fundamentals of marriage are changing across the nation, it makes sense why the fundamentals of divorce would be changing as well.
According to marriage counselors and therapists, a lot of couples are struggling with the division of housework and parental responsibilities. Considering that women who out earn their husbands still tend to handle more housework and parenting responsibilities than their husbands, it’s no wonder why so many modern couples are divorcing over these disparities every day.
What does this all mean for the wife who out earns her husband? Our firm specializes in helping spouses through financially-complex divorces. Though most husbands still earn more than their wives, increasingly, we are representing women with substantial financial assets they earned themselves. Sometimes, they have significantly more assets than their husbands, which are subject to division.
Next: Are You Wealthy? Protect Yourself Before the Divorce
If you are a woman who earns slightly more, or significantly more than her husband, or if your husband is unemployed or a stay-at-home father, your divorce will have special considerations that are unique. By working with a qualified Putnam County divorce attorney from our firm, it can make a world of difference in the outcome of your divorce.