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Comment by galfarragem | Hacker News Reader

This trend is certainly one aspect of the explanation for the decline in the number of long-term relationships.

The other being that once women have largescale representation in the workforce, can open bank accounts and credit cards on their own, and can support themselves financially, one of the key pressures to marry is removed. Once there was no fault divorce and women did not need to prove why they needed to divorce, one of the key pressures to stay married is removed.

Perhaps important, republicans from state lawmakers up to the VP are interested in repealing no fault divorce laws.

And that's just what they'll openly admit to! Rest assured, they would absolutely not stop at no-fault divorce. They would undo all of the progress you mentioned, and likely more.

As the gender gap in voting patterns widens, denying rights to women goes from not only being an ideological project of the right but a political project as well. "We will win more elections if women have less social power" is not a good situation to be in.

I am the opposite of surprised. How else are terrible, low-quality men going to trap women into a life of unpaid home labor if they can control their own finances, reproduction, and choice to enter or leave a marriage.

That happened a long time ago though, much much longer ago than the number of relationships started to drop, so its unrelated.

In 1969, California passed no-fault divorce, followed quickly by other states, and by the mid-80s, nearly all states had adopted no-fault divorce laws.

In 1974, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) made it illegal for banks to discriminate in lending based on sex or marital status, allowing women to get credit cards, loans, etc.

In 1978, the US passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

The rate of working women went from 30% in the post WWII 40s, to over 50% in the 1970s.

And divorces. They went from 9.2% in 1960, to 22.9% in 1980, and have been slowly declining since then.

It could also be the opposite causality. Because people aren't getting into intimate relationships as much (looking out for each other, caring deeply about an individual of the opposite gender), the two groups are naturally diverging into preferring "what's best for ME".

I think the political split between genders is MUCH stronger for singles. It's kind of a trap actually.

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