Recently I have met a friend at work who is going through a divorce. Today I found out my dental assistant that does my teeth is getting divorced (and she is my age). And this brings me to the question that has been plaguing sociologists for years- the issue of high divorce rates. Since the 70's there has been an extremely high rate of divorce in our country. Also, in the last 30 years the rate of married women with children working full-time increased by 50%. Are these numbers related to each other? I think so. Now, the woman has two full-time jobs. Not only must she have her 'career' job, she has to manage the home full time. And, it's just not possible to 'have it all'. Even if the husband helps at home, the load is stressful for the couple. There is not only the stress of home life - raising kids, housework, meals, upkeep on the home - but there is the added stress of a two-working parent household: getting the kids to day care or school, getting them home and to their activities and practices, both parents having job-related stresses that carry over to their home life.
A lot of the men in my generation were raised with the mother handling the majority of the household duties, which wasn't a problem because they didn't have to work in industry. Now, the men expect the wives to do the same AND they expect them to work full-time, which just puts to much stress and strain on the wife and on the marital relationship, hence all of the divorces. This is my theory based off of what I've seen in the people I know who are divorcing.
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