Women who initiate their divorce do worse financially than who are left by their husbands, new research suggests.
Dr Belinda Hewitt of the Institute for Social Research in Queensland set out to discover whether initiating a divorce made a difference to household finances. She analysed data from the long-running Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, looking specifically at the income of 6,424 men and women before and after divorce.
She said;
”We wanted to know whether anticipating the end of the relationship, and therefore putting in place strategies to avoid financial consequences, could make a difference”.
She discovered that women’s incomes were lower in the first year after divorce if they had made the decision to separate. Meanwhile, there were no significant differences in the incomes of divorced men who had the decision, compared to those who hadn’t.
Men may be more reluctant to provide financial support and maintenance if their partner initiates the split, Dr Hewitt said. ‘Whereas, if the man has initiated a divorce, he might feel guilty and be far more co-operative.”
re ‘Men may be more reluctant to provide financial support and maintenance if their partner initiates the split, Dr Hewitt said. ‘Whereas, if the man has initiated a divorce, he might feel guilty and be far more co-operative.’
Yes, true. I felt that way and still do. Not sure needed research to prove that though.
Its obvious really.
This is not a big surprise, men who feel guilty will often give up even more voluntarily than the courts would take from them. I do know a couple of guys (one quite recently and one decades ago) that did this and frankly were ruthlessly financially shafted by their very bitter ex-wives.
It’s quite shameful that we have all this research focused on women and what they can get out of marriage/divorce. It’s just shoring up the theory that women are only ever ‘in it’ for the money, and a real embarrassment for those more honest women who do not go around seeking to manipulate and cheat their way through life. If I were a women, I would be so ashamed of how family law and thugs who do research on its behalf deal with and represent women’s issues.
Yes, I know a couple of men who went exactly the same way as you mention Luke. One was guilty about leaving and the other wanted to keep it amicable. On both occasions they ended up very poor and badly treated financially because of that approach also.
I meant one was feeling guilty about leaving.