Divorce Fact: Women Are The Losers!

When a couple gets divorced, the usual result is damage to the income and financial future of the women. There are many studies that have been done in the last 10 years and the results are all similar. Women who go through divorce are on the losing end while the men are the ones who complain about being poor. Statistics show that the year after divorce, the man’s income stayed the same or increased. The woman’s dropped significantly.

Some of the studies that I read recently offered statistics showing that even four years after divorce, the divorced women were significantly worse off than the divorced men or the women who never divorced.

There are more and more studies that prove the fact that divorced women suffer hardship when a divorce occurs at a much higher rate then the divorced men.

Some of the hardships that the women in the studies experienced were the following:

• They couldn’t pay rent or mortgage on time.
• They pawned or sold things to survive.
• They couldn’t pay utility or phone bills on time.
• They couldn’t get their prescriptions filled.
• They couldn’t go to the dentist or doctor.
• They lost health insurance.
• They went without meals.
• They couldn’t heat their homes.
• They asked for help from friends
• They asked for welfare or the like.

After four years almost 50% of the divorced women were still experiencing at least one of these hardships.

Why does divorce have such a negative impact on the finances of divorced women and little or no impact on the men?

• Many are stay at home moms who begin the divorce with no income and can’t recover.
• Too often women are not involved in financial decisions during the marriage.
• Many women have been out of the workforce for varying times to raise the children and can’t get back to the same income level as when they quit.
• The women who do work outside the home, decline advancement because of the needs of their children.
• Women are more likely to be taken advantage of by attorneys and other professionals.

With the women who work outside of the home, the higher their income is when they go through divorce, the better they fare long term.

So what is the answer for women who are facing divorce? The answer is the mantra that I have been chanting for almost a decade.

“Women can’t bury their heads in the sand and pretend that divorce won’t happen to them. They must prepare for the worst case scenario and hope for the best case! They must do what it takes to protect themselves and they must let go of their idealism believing that they will be married forever. Women must not quit their jobs to stay at home with the children until they they have a post-nup in place.“

First Photo: storebukkebruse

Second Photo: orphum