Getting Married · Chapter
Divorce explained
This chapter argues that the legal focus on adultery as the primary ground for divorce is misguided, and that more serious grounds such as cruelty, criminality, or incompatibility should be considered.
What happens
This chapter argues that the legal focus on adultery as the primary ground for divorce is misguided, and that more serious grounds such as cruelty, criminality, or incompatibility should be considered. It critiques the underlying assumption that women belong to a separate domestic sphere and that marriage is primarily about property and offspring, calling for a fundamental rethinking of marriage laws and religious foundations.
Themes in this chapter
Divorce and Legal Reform
The chapter argues for expanding divorce grounds beyond adultery to include cruelty, criminality, and incompatibility.
Economic Dependence of Women
The chapter highlights how laws assume women are less than men and that men's financial support of children justifies unequal divorce rights.
Key passages
“Adultery, far from being the first and only ground for divorce, might more reasonably be made the last, or wholly excluded.”
Adultery should not be the primary or sole reason for divorce; it could be considered the least important or even irrelevant.
The author challenges the legal prioritization of adultery over other serious marital issues.
“The day has gone by for basing laws on the assumption that a woman is less to a man than his dog, and thereby encouraging and accepting the standards of the husbands who buy meat for their bull-pups and leave their wives and children hungry.”
It is no longer acceptable to create laws that treat women as less valuable than pets, which condones neglectful husbands who feed their dogs while starving their families.
The author condemns the dehumanizing legal treatment of women in marriage.