Divorce, American Style

Fighting for Women's Economic Citizenship in the Neoliberal Era

Suzanne Kahn (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

344 Seiten

2021
University of Pennsylvania Press (Verlag)
978-0-8122-5290-3 (ISBN)

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In the 1970s, the divorce rate in the United States doubled, and longtime homemakers suddenly found themselves at risk of poverty, not only because their husband's job was their sole source of income, but also because their insurance, retirement, and credit worthiness were all tied to their spouse's employment. Divorce, American Style examines how newly divorced women and policymakers responded to the crisis that rising divorce rates created for American society.
Suzanne Kahn shows that, ironically, rising divorce rates led to policies that actually strengthened the social insurance system's use of marriage to determine eligibility for benefits. Large numbers of newly divorced women quickly realized their invisibility within the American welfare state, which did not distribute benefits to most women directly but rather through their husbands. These newly divorced women organized themselves into a political force, and they were remarkably successful in securing legislation designed to address divorced women's needs. But this required significant compromise with policymakers, and these new laws specifically rewarded intact marriages, providing more robust benefits to women in longer marriages. These incentives remain in place today. Indeed, in the thirty years since this legislative compromise, activists' efforts to grapple with the legal system created out of this crisis have affected such high-profile debates as the fight over the Affordable Care Act and the battle for marriage equality.
Divorce, American Style contests the frequent claim that marriage has become a more flexible legal status over time. Enduring ideas about marriage and the family continue to have a powerful effect on the structure of a wide range of social programs in the United States.

Suzanne Kahn is Director of the Great Democracy Initiative and the Education, Jobs, and Worker Power Program at the Roosevelt Institute.

Contents
Introduction. Divorce, 1970s Style
Part I. The Divorce Revolution
Chapter 1. From Alimony Drones to Breeding Cows: Women and the Divorce Law Revolution
Chapter 2. From the Altar to the Grave: The Beginnings of the Feminist Divorce Reform Movement
Part II. A Galaxy of Laws
Chapter 3. Partners or Parasites? Class, Race, and Credit Rights
Chapter 4. The Privileges of Marriage: Divorced Women and Selective Entitlements to HealthCare
Chapter 5. Marriage as Work, Marriage as Partnership: Divorced Women's Fight for Social Security
Chapter 6. "How You Lose Money by Being a Woman": Divorce in an Age of Proliferating Retirement Savings Options
Chapter 7. An Expensive Endurance Test: Compromising Toward Success in the 1980s
Part III. Stable Divorce Rates and Unstable Politics
Chapter 8. "Responsibility, Equity; Not Cruelty": Changing Venues for Feminist Divorce Reformers
Chapter 9. "Saving the Next Generation": The Changing Politics of Divorce
Conclusion. No-Fault Divorce in a Morality-Based Welfare System
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments

Erscheinungsdatum	10.05.2021
Reihe/Serie	Politics and Culture in Modern America
Zusatzinfo	1 illus.
Verlagsort	Pennsylvania
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	0-8122-5290-X / 081225290X
ISBN-13	978-0-8122-5290-3 / 9780812252903
Zustand	Neuware