How can a man dominate his wife if she can divorce him?

As I’ve mentioned before, some conservatives advocate for ending no-fault divorce; some are fine even if the spouse is abusive. After all, how can a man truly exercise his god-given authority over a woman if she has the option to refuse and walk out. So it’s no wonder this is becoming a new crusade for misogynists.

Right-wingers Terry Schilling and Tim Pool explains it’s good for society and women to end no-fault divorce. Society because otherwise families will collapse and lawless abandoned kids will wreak havoc. It protects women because their husbands won’t be able to abandon them. And men are terrified of getting married because the woman can just divorce them and make off with their money. If no-fault divorce were over, guys wouldn’t have to worry so women could land a man.

While husbands do abandon spouses and some women, I imagine, may still marry for money (though getting half of it is way harder than in popular fiction), lots of women want to walk out. In general, I think ending a marriage that doesn’t work is preferable to staying together with everyone miserable. It’s definitely better than not being able to leave because of abuse — and yes, some wives are abusive too. It’s not even that radical an idea: the book Sexual Revolution in Early America shows that easy divorce was common and unremarkable, though neither civil authorities nor religious approved of it.

But like I said, if women can leave a marriage, how can a man feel secure? An article twenty years ago in Forbes warned men not to marry career women. Among other reasons, they have their own money so they’re not dependent on you, which makes it easy to walk out. Much better to marry someone who’s desperate for the money rather than exert the effort to make the marriage work, I guess.

Texas’ Republican platform called for the state to end no-fault divorce back in 2022. The article at the link seems skeptical it would go anywhere but Republicans have submitted bills. A divorce attorney says even if there’s divorce-for-fault it will be harder and more expensive. Or it might turn out the grounds are as hard to access as life-saving abortions have become in some states.

For more about marriage and misogyny, feel free to check out my Undead Sexist Cliches, available as a Amazon paperback, an ebook and from several other retailers. Cover by Kemp Ward