Although the legal dissolution of marriage has existed throughout American history divorce rates increased dramatically during the late twentieth century This resulted from many factors, including the relaxation of legislation, secularization and heightened expectations for emotional satisfaction within marriage. Only two out of 1,000 American marriages ended in divorce in 1866 (the world’s highest divorce rate at the time). By 1929 that increased to one out of six; by 1990 it was nearly one out of two. Even among cultural and religious traditions that proscribe divorce, it has become increasingly accepted.

For most of American history adultery was the only acceptable justification for divorce. In the liberal social climate of the 1970s, the “no-fault” divorce became a critical innovation, allowing couples to divorce by citing “irreconcilable differences” or an “irretrievable breakdown of the marriage.” The ease with which many people divorced caused some to argue that there has been an unprecedented breakdown in American family life—a “divorce epidemic”—which has led to harmful effects on the children involved and for American society as a whole. Others argue that the freedom to divorce is necessary because it reduces the stigma associated with ending what would otherwise be an unhappy or perhaps seriously abusive marriage. One might note that many conservative Republicans championing traditional values—Ronald Reagan. Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich—have been themselves divorced.

Though divorce may be less stigmatized than in former times, it still creates emotional and financial distress for those involved, especially for women (who tend to lose more economically) and offspring. Divorce has been cited as one of the highest causes of stress in American life, second only to the death of a loved one. As a result, there has been much debate about what to do—if anything—about this cultural pattern. For example, in an effort to reduce divorce rates, the Louisiana legislature passed the 1997 Covenant Marriage Act, which permits each couple marrying in Louisiana to limit the legal grounds of divorce in their case to adultery abandonment, physical or sexual abuse, felony conviction, or separation of at least two years. Others, notably feminist leaders, have protested these trends as a regression to an era of stifled choices and oppressive living arrangements.

Divorce is also commonly presented in mass media, both in television and movie narratives, and celebrity lives reported in the press. Economic, social and cultural issues of divorce, in fact, provide a continuous thread in long-running soap operas and movies from Adam’s Rib (1950) through Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) to the darkly comedic War of the Roses (1989) and beyond. In Hollywood, divorce can be seen as a happy ending— or a beginning.

Freedom and individuality are central to American culture, and, in some ways, the rising divorce rate reflects this emphasis on personal liberties. Predictions that rising divorce rates portend the end of marriage, however, seem greatly exaggerated.