Cohabitation: Divorce Declining, But So Is Marriage: By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY

Divorce declining, but so is marriage

By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY

Divorce is on the decline in the USA, but a report to be released today suggests that may be due more to an increase in people living together than to more lasting marriages.

Couples who once might have wed and then divorced now are not marrying at all, according to The State of our Unions 2005. The annual report, which analyzes Census and other data, is issued by the National Marriage Project at New Jersey's Rutgers University.

The U.S. divorce rate is 17.7 per 1,000 married women, down from 22.6 in 1980. The marriage rate is also on a steady decline: a 50% drop since 1970 from 76.5 per 1,000 unmarried women to 39.9, says the report, whose calculations are based on an internationally used measurement.

"Cohabitation is here to stay," says David Popenoe, a Rutgers sociology professor and report co-author. "I don't think it's good news, especially for children," he says. "As society shifts from marriage to cohabitation — which is what's happening — you have an increase in family instability."

Cohabiting couples have twice the breakup rate of married couples, the report's authors say. And in the USA, 40% bring kids into these often-shaky live-in relationships which have reached an all time high with no downswing in sight.

"It is important now to think beyond the divorce rate to other kinds of couple unions and look at how stable they are," says Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, a social historian and report co-author.

"It's a pretty short period of time for that change (cohabitation) to have occurred and to have taken hold in the way it has," she says.

In the USA, 8.1% of coupled households are made up of unmarried, heterosexual partners. Although many European countries have higher cohabitation rates, divorce rates in those countries are lower, and more children grow up with both biological parents, even though the parents may not be married, Popenoe says.

The USA has the lowest percentage among Western nations of children who grow up with both biological parents, 63% in fact, the report says.

"The United States has the weakest families in the Western world because we have the highest divorce rate and the highest rate of solo parenting," (In the United States this means single mother parenting and fatherless children. The United States has the second from last UNICEF child well being rating of all developed nations.)



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(There is a growing Men's Rights Movement that has sprung up around the increasing voices of men who demand the right to have a child and to be a father, joint custody is the goal men are trying to achieve in this broken family model. It is not by choice that men find themselves supporting a woman that is not their wife and a child they are not allowed to see as 70% of divorces are filed by women. Men's Rights seeks to make divorce and custody laws more equal. Feminist have stated for many years that a child does not need a father and that families can take many forms and that of lesbian couples as well are just as healthy for children. Feminist have recently stated that a "positive male role model" is of some importance, this slight change in thought has been a small victory for men in our society. The voice of women represented by feminists has been what government and society have listened to that has created the disparity between men women children and family.

It is believed that isolation of the male while subject to resource provision to the female is unjust. It is increasingly believed and studies show that fathers play an important role in a childs life. That despite being portrayed as useless child like animals on many TV commercials and in popular culture fathers are important to a family and children. Government and society is starting to realize that fatherhood and a child's right to have a father is important. I believe that it is everyones hope that men and women will come back together to form families. It has also been widely and falsely proported that men don't want to be fathers and are happy, motivated, proud and willing to be isolated resource producing males.

Increased efforts have been made by government to force men to continue supporting their ex-wifes and children as states are rewarded for how many men are tracked down and forced to produce. It is now more common for male garnishment of wages directly from his paycheck. The amount men pay is not based on a median standard of living but the standard of living he is and was able to produce when he was selected as a mate by the female.

The movement itself is growing and increasingly organizing. Getting off the ground in 2000 the scattered grass roots movement has increasingly been united from individual "MRA's" and small conglomerates to organized efforts such as Fathers 4 Justice have taken shape while more men continue to join the ranks. Leadership is starting to emerge with men such as Glenn Sacks and Warren Farrell and others making their voices known on the internet as well.

Men are trying to find their honorable and rightful place in a world where divorce, cohabitation and fatherlessness is the norm and 70% of married women who divorce abandon their marriages leaving men to utter financial and emotional devastation, fatherlessness as well as long term forced indentured servitude to a resource receiving female. Feminists have repeatedly objected to numerous iterations of the Fathers Count Bill initiatives and the like to promote marriage information initiatives for our people. Women, represented by the Feminist Party have instead been pushing for increased support and diversion of these funds to support single mothers through "government husbandry" organizations and welfare to work programs. It is widely stated by feminists that the best predictor for single mother poverty is divorce and single motherhood. How ironic it is as any scholar of feminist doctrine is aware that marriage is detested by feminists, divorce is encouraged and rewarding through biased divorce laws and then more of societies tax revenue is requested to support this "choice" benefit of women.

Pressure is increasingly being put on legislators by Men's Rights groups to realize the actual source of the problem rather than attending to the results caused by destructive policies and divorce laws. To in fact try to restore the American family unit and the growing conflict between men and women.

MRAs and the Men's Movement has spearheaded the approach to this restoration and pro family fatherhood initiatives. I am sure it is everyones hope that women and men a like work together to restore our families.


The graph below illustrates the astronomical rise in divorce rates following the the start of the second wave feminist movement. At first look it would appear to those who are not informed of the cohabitation issue that divorce is on the decline when in actuality people are simply not marrying at all anymore.

(One can see from the graph below the rampant rise in divorce rates starting when second wave feminism began and the apex at which the devastating fall out of cohabitation began to take place.. )


Men and women are being driven apart at both ends. It is speculated that men are turning away from marriage and commitment to women because of the devastating consequences of fatherlessness, financial and emotional devastation. The phenomenon has been labeled "The Marriage Strike". It is speculated that women initiate 70% of divorces simply because they can with not only no consequence but full custody and the financial rewards are lucrative as well. In essence the consequence from divorce falls disproportionally upon men.

Example: "Vickie of Orlando e-mailed, "I receive a nice alimony check each month, eventually 50 percent of his Social Security, and upon his death, hundreds of thousands in life insurance. So why would I even think of getting married again?" --As she would loose the indentured servant that is her ex-husband. This happens to a great many men, by laws entitling women to the fruits of men's labor during their work life, their retirement money and even after their death men are forced to support women who by todays standards are supposed to be "independent" and self supporting, this could be no further from the truth.

I myself was amazed that upon my step fathers death his social security was given to his ex-wife of 20 years ago as it was the case that she never remarried and as such was entitled to be supported by the labors of a man. Why feminism does not fight against this is clear, thus the Men's Rights Movement, The Marriage Strike among modern men and the dissolution of the American Family is the result of such inequalities between the sexes and one of many sources of the increasing subjugation of men to women.

Although our president understands we have a problem I am afraid he is unaware of the cause.