Did the divorce rates increase or decrease after World War 2?

Answer 1

There was an uptick in the divorce rate after the war. There had been a lot of hasty wartime marriages, under the influence of the emotion and sentimentality of imminent separation as men left to embark for overseas service. Some of these were between sweethearts with a long relationship but plenty of others were between relative strangers who met and married in a matter of days. Marriages which already existed also broke down under the strain of prolonged absence by the husband, and with some wives finding romantic alternatives and antidotes to loneliness in men at he first jobs many of them had ever held, when they obtained "war work". Men overseas also found new romantic interests. But in those days it was not so easy to obtain a divorce. Only in Nevada could a person obtain a divorce based on mere separation, so Reno, Nevada was the divorce capital of America. People would go there and live for a few months - long enough to satisfy the relatively short residency period to give Nevada courts jurisdiction, and then get a "quickie" Reno divorce. This was regarded as a scandalous and trashy thing to do. Everywhere else there had to be a lengthy separation - usually two years - and then to actually get the divorce there had to be "cause". One party or the other had to allege that there had been adultery, or mental cruelty. If the other party would not admit that this was so, it had to be proved in court, and adultery required actual witnesses to the sexual act. Other grounds included incurable insanity, or if one party was in the penitentiary. Since frequently both parties really wanted to get divorced just because they realized the marriage was a mistake and entered into foolishly, oftentimes they would collude with one another and one party would allege adultery which in fact had never happened, but the other party would admit to it just to get the divorce. So, many people had to become perjurers just to get unhitched. America was still a pretty religious nation and most felt that the interest of the state was in preserving the "sanctity of marriage", especially if there were children. Only around 1970 did the states begin rewriting their divorce laws, to allow for "no fault" divorce (which is still decried by religious person) where mere separation for (usually) one year is enough grounds to obtain a divorce.