Will my spouse need to get a job after our divorce?
24th November 2015
Day two of Resolution Family Dispute Resolution week and finding number two from the research on outcomes in litigated, financial cases in Scotland undertaken by Jane Mair of the University of Glasgow, School of Law with support from Fran Wasoff and Enid Mordaunt from the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh...
So, the second finding that we found interesting:
2. 52% of the wives divorcing (or being divorced) were employed:
OUTCOME: Of the wives, 23% were employed full-time and 29% part-time.
OUR EXPERIENCE: We will be interested to see the breakdown of these figures in cases within the last decade, as in divorce cases in Scotland nowadays our experience is that it is relatively unusual for wives not to work at all. What is perhaps interesting- and the subject of discussion with our colleagues south of the border- is whether this is because Scots law favours a clean break, as a result of which support post-divorce is unusual- so women have to work; or whether, rather, the law follows social norms here- because women (post marriage) tend to work in greater numbers than is the case in England and Wales, there is less of a need for support post-divorce. Discuss!
