Good morning class and Professor,

1. The first recorded divorce in the “New World: was in 1639. A lot of things have changed since then.

First off, divorce appears to be more acceptable today than it ws years past. Thanks to Ronald Reagan, when he was governor of California in the 1960s, he enacted the no-fault divorce law. From 1960 to 1980, the divorce rate

From 1960 to 1980, the divorce rate pretty much doubled. It was 9.2 divorces per 1000 married women to 22.6 divorces per 1000 women. This was at a 50% rate of divorce from 1970. Half of the children that were born were children of divorced parents. Whereas it was only 11% in the 1950s. By the 1980s, record high divorce rates were occuring. Sadly, I am part of the divorce rate with my first marriage. Things seem to be leveling off. However, when it comes to marriage, most who marry, they feel their marriage will last forever. The vows were said sincerely, we had hope for our future and we were in love. Then one day he came to me and asked for a divorce. I was devasted. Usually half off couples stay together. 40% of children live in a divorced home and 50% will live in a stepfamily home.

The changes are have occured today today in the legal system there has been a decrease in divorce rates as well as less stigma than 30 or 40 years ago. In 2010, the rate dropped to 3.6 for every 1000. Whereas in 2017 the rate reached 2.9 with only 787,251 divorces. This has been the lowest since 1968. It appears that the older generation is the one divorcing, whereas the millennials are waiting to get married.

Thank you and have a good day.

Maria

2. From the reading in the text, we learn about the early history of divorce. It seems that up until 1200 CE, divorce was not necessarily that difficult, and there were some strange practices that would take place to finalize the divorce, such as jumping backwards over a broom or running around a church blindfolded to find a new spouse. The Christian community decreed that a divorce could only take place in certain circumstances, such as adultery (normally on the wife’s part), bigamy, incest or extreme abuse. As time progressed and countries began granting divorces, so did certain states within the US. Couples would travel to these states in order to have their divorce. I find it interesting that just 20 years ago, gay couples had to go to different states to wed, and in history, couples had to go to different states to divorce. As it became easier for people to divorce, the rate of divorce began to climb, up to 50% at certain points in history. There has been much speculation as to why divorce rates have climbed so significantly over the decades, but I have to wonder if they would have always been that high, if it had always been so easy to do?

Julie