How do you counteract the argument that easier access to divorce empowers women and thus also helps children?
I had an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times recently that argued that easy access to divorce has a protective factor for women. I further argue that it would be more difficult for women to escape abusive marriages if we made divorce harder to get. I take that very seriously: anyone who values marriage as an institution for rearing children has got to be tough on the question of domestic violence. I argue also in the piece that children in marriages with high levels of conflict are worse off than children in single-parent households with low levels. On the other hand, you can’t assume that divorce always ends the conflict; in some cases, it does not. In some ways the arguments for bringing fault back into divorce are quite appealing to me, but as a practical matter, I don’t think a fault system will work to reduce the levels of divorce. It is more likely to escalate the conflict and acrimony between couples and further hurt the kids. The typical divorce is initiated by the wife because t
