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Divorce reform cut wives' suicides 20%
Divorce and safety
Each state that adopted unilateral divorce did so at a different time. In the first five years afterward, every one of them saw an upsurge in divorce. They also saw a 20% decline in wives' suicide rates and a decline of between a quarter and a half in domestic violence.
After the Depression
The decade sat in the middle of a long stretch of economic progress. After the Great Depression and World War II, people came out feeling that something had gone wrong with the economic system and something had gone right in the way people of all classes got together. Draftees fought alongside each other and came home thinking they had beaten fascism.
The New Deal
That fed a groundswell of support for the New Deal: bringing the excesses of Wall Street under control, and protecting workers' ability to improve their wages and keep track of their hours. It wasn't perfect, but there was steady progress from the late 1930s through the early 1970s.
How did no-fault divorce spread?
California became the first state to adopt no-fault divorce, with a law that took effect in 1970. Other states followed over the next decade and a half, each on its own timetable. New York was the last state to add it, in 2010.
How did economists test divorce reform's effects?
Economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers compared states that adopted unilateral divorce at different times. Because the timing varied, states that had not yet changed their laws served as a comparison group for those that had. They then tracked outcomes such as suicide and domestic violence before and after each change. Their paper appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Economics in 2006.
How did the New Deal protect workers' hours?
The Wagner Act of 1935 protected workers' right to organize and bargain collectively. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 required overtime pay for hours beyond a weekly limit, which started at 44 hours and fell to 40 by 1940. It also set the first federal minimum wage at 25 cents an hour.
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