50% Divorce is, Like, Over

You know that line, "the divorce rate is at 50%"? Well, ahem, apparently, not anymore ("The Divorce Surge Is Over, but the Myth Lives On" by Claire Cain Miller).

It is no longer true that the divorce rate is rising, or that half of all marriages end in divorce. It has not been for some time. Even though social scientists have tried to debunk those myths, somehow the conventional wisdom has held.

Despite hand-wringing about the institution of marriage, marriages in this country are stronger today than they have been in a long time. The divorce rate peaked in the 1970s and early 1980s and has been declining for the three decades since.

From 1990 on, divorce rates have been dropping. 

There are many reasons for the drop in divorce, including later marriages, birth control and the rise of so-called love marriages. These same forces have helped reduce the divorce rate in parts of Europe, too. Much of the trend has to do with changing gender roles — whom the feminist revolution helped and whom it left behind. . . 

Some of the decline in divorce clearly stems from the fact that fewer people are getting married — and some of the biggest declines in marriage have come among groups at risk of divorce. But it also seems to be the case that marriages have gotten more stable, as people are marrying later.

There is a discernible correlation between marital stability and marrying later—all hail older singles!  

Well, maybe not this old.

Apparently, when divorce started becoming a thing in the '70s and '80s, it was an anomaly, as opposed to the rule. This was in a time as women's roles began to shift; wives realized the spouse they had was not the one who would be cool with those changes. 

As women's roles began to stabilize again, they were able to make smarter, long-term choices in a spouse. 

Well, what does this mean for the frummies? I don't know about our own divorce numbers, but they appear to be alarmingly high to me. We do take on trends, just with a bit (20+ years?) of delay. 

Although I don't think our current issue is that frum women are branching out of the "barefoot and pregnant" cliche . . . we've been doing that for a while now. 

Hmm.