Americans are lucky enough to live in a society that is accepting of both choosing one’s own mate, as well as being permitted to change one’s mind. Women have almost equal footing with men and do not have to get their father, brother, or husband’s permission to leave a destructive or abusive relationship.

A Woman’s Right To Leave

Being more educated and self-sufficient than their non-Western counterparts allows women to have something else to fall back on when they become disillusioned with their married life. Further, as a consequence of being recognized as persons under the law most elements of Western society do not allow men to take on multiple wives. Of course, there are exceptions such as people with religious convictions that allow them to justify a disregard for the female claim to personhood. But, for the most part women are no longer just along for the ride. They can now help decide where the trip goes.

Society Is Rich Enough To Handle It

Marital breakdown can be seen as an unfortunate side effect of so much freedom and choice. Certainly there are abuses and extremes. People do not carefully think through their commitments before making them because they know that any contract has an escape clause. Since our society is rich enough to handle costly corrections such as divorce, many people are willing to pay the price. In other countries where housing is dolled out by governments, separation from a spouse does not mean that they will no longer be forced to live together. It still happens that an ex can take on a new spouse and all three will live under one roof but, it is an incentive to many to try and work things out. Here, it is almost too easy to walk away.

It’s Not For The Sake Of The Child

Social support systems such as school and government programs are available to help not only adults but, also their children transition into broken homes. Popular culture glorifies blended family units and even adds layers of romance to the notion of living with step siblings. So, the ability of children to adapt to their parents’ separation is often seen as a good thing. There is so much education on the topic that even a toddler knows that it is better to live in separate homes than being exposed to parents that can’t stand to be around each other.

Relationships fail for many reasons, and always have. But, people used to just live that way instead of leaving because of three main reasons: Lack of financial and emotional support, for the sake of the children, and because divorce is a very public thing and was not acceptable to air out family affairs to outsiders. These days, all that has changed and so have the number of people taking advantage of it.