Divorce: The answer to abuse

Guest column contributed by Ric Saludo’s colleague Maria Carmina Olivar

Last of two parts

HIGHLY Westernized societies like ours tend to look to America in search for guidance, or at least a reference point on weighty issues. Hence, it may be worthwhile to see how the United States has handled the matter of divorce through the years, and what social impact it made on American family life.

In almost half of all US marriages, at least one partner is remarrying, and an estimated two out of every five marriages in the nation end in divorce. According to US census data, a first marriage that ends in divorce lasts an average of about eight years, with a median time between divorce and remarriage estimated at about three and a half years.

These numbers have fascinated doctors, specialists and scholars and continue to fuel reports and papers on social and economic issues that may or may not influence marriage trends. In fact, the National Center for Health Statistics released a comprehensive report on socioeconomic factors and how they affect cohabitation, marriage, divorce and remarriage in the United States.

Notably, the data point to factors that lead to marital dissatisfaction and divorce, from early marriage and lower level of education, to premarital sex and cohabitation, psychological problems, and the availability of alternative partners. Efforts to address those root causes need to be undertaken along with or, some would argue, instead of divorce legislation.

According to Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers’s study, “Marriage and Divorce in the United States,” the divorce rate peaked in 1981 and is now slowly declining, partly due to the decline in people getting married in the United States over the past 25 years. A research brief prepared by Prof. Douglas W. Allen and Maggie Gallagher for the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy in 2007 concludes that no-fault divorce did play a part in increasing the US divorce rate. All US states allow no-fault divorce, in which no wrongdoing or deficiency by either couple is needed to dissolve the marriage. The Philippine divorce bill does not include no-fault divorce.

Turning to Europe, we see a variety of family and divorce laws, as explained in the compilation, “Civil Law Cultures in Europe: Some striking (dis)similarities.” Still, there are notable parallels in the divorce legislation of the predominantly Catholic nations of Ireland, Italy and Spain, which enacted them later than North America, between 1974 and 1997.

Their statutes have provisions like those in House Bill 1799, including stricter conditions and processes, reflecting strong Roman Catholic influence. For instance, like a similar provision in the Philippine bill, Ireland’s divorce law, enacted in 1997, requires that spouses have lived apart for at least four of the previous five years, as explained by the Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC).

House Bill 1799 sets five requirements for divorce: de facto separation of at least five years, legal separation of at least two years, valid grounds for legal separation causing the irreparable breakdown of the marriage, psychological incapacity or irreconcilable differences resulting in irreversible marital breakdown.

Similar provisions apply in Ireland, Italy and Spain: a continuous three years of separation for the former, and two years for Spain. Plus: no provision for no-fault divorce in the two countries and Ireland. Such provisions may partly explain why those nations have not experienced the high divorce rates seen in America and elsewhere. Indeed, the three nations have seen generally long-lasting marriages, compared to the US. Philippine divorce proponents argue that the same would happen here if divorce is allowed.

In 2006, Ireland’s Iona Institute for Religion and Society released a report on the breakdown of marriage and family structure using figures going back 20 years. The analysis showed increasing rates of marital breakdown, including divorce, starting 1997, as well as single parents and co-habitation. However, as late as 2009, Ireland still held the least divorces as a percentage of all marriages.

Divorce has been allowed in Italy since 1974; and in Spain since 1981. Nevertheless, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which groups developed countries, found that Italy’s divorce rate is very close to Ireland’s. And while Spain’s divorce rate is about double Italy’s, the average duration of marriages for both countries is about 15 years.

A research article by Fabrizio Bernardi and Juan-Ignacio Martinez-Pastor explores the divorce factors in Spain, which may explain its higher divorce rate despite having enacted a divorce law more than five years after Italy. The study indicated that economic and education factors have less impact on divorce rates for Spanish women since divorce was legalized in 1981. But having children led wives married in the 1980s to stay hitched. And as in several other countries, co-habitation before marriage was a factor toward later divorce. Again, the research points to factors that could be addressed by measures along with or other than divorce legislation.

What about the impact of divorce, especially on wives and children? One of the highlighted benefits of the Divorce Bill – and one main reason why women’s rights groups champion it – is spousal and child support. Say Dee Dicen Hunt and Cora Sta. Ana-Gatbonton: “Filipino women accept that part of their role in marriage is to satisfy the sexual needs of their husband, whether they like it or not … Abuse and violence is often accepted as part of married life.” With financial support assured, more battered wives with no paid employment would likely seek divorce as a way out of abusive relationships.

Other studies look at the impact on children after divorce. “The Long Term Effects of Legalizing Divorce on Children,” a study by Professors Libertad González of Barcelona’s Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Tarja Viitanen of the University of Sheffield, cites studies showing both negative as well as minimal impact of divorce on children in their adult life.

The 2008 study, supported by Germany’s Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), summed up: “We find consistent evidence suggesting that the legalization of divorce had negative long-term effects on children, particularly females. Women who grew up after divorce was legalized earn significantly lower wages and have lower incomes compared with women growing up under illegal divorce. They also report significantly more health problems. These negative effects are not found for men. … Knowledge of the potential long- term impact of these reforms on children should inform the discussion and potentially help prevent some of the detrimental effects.”

So is divorce the answer to the challenge of marital woes? It certainly provides one solution. Since House Bill 1799 is similar, if not stricter, than divorce laws in three Catholic countries with low divorce rates, there seems less reason to fear a surge of marital break-ups after legalization.

Moreover, given the sad and stark options facing battered wives, passing a divorce law will be an enlightened response to the longstanding oppression suffered by women in silence while men act as they wish by just because they win the bread. Letting the abuse continue would certainly be not only unjust, but also un-Christian.

(The first part was published on Wednesday.)

Maria Carmina Olivar writes for the Center for Strategy, Enterprise & Intelligence and The CenSEI Report on major national, global and business issues. For the full weekly Report, email report@censeisolutions.com. –RICARDO SALUDO, Manila Times