By the way some women are gold diggers (some men too I suppose). My soon to be ex is one of them. I put her through med school and residency. Even when she was in practice, she only worked part time. We had kids 10 years in to our 16 year marriage, so for those first 10 years she was not home taking care of kids; she was getting educated for a high wage profession, while I was paying all her living expenses. She rarely cooked. We had maids to mop, clean toilets, vacuum. We had a nanny for the kids. She never did a stitch of my laundry in 16 years. She never helped me with my career. She never threw dinner parties for my colleagues, etc. It was all about me supporting her, making her career aspirations possible. She also has a substantial inheritance from Daddy and will get more when Mommy dies.
Still, divorce laws dictate that she'll get half of the "marital portion" of my pension plus a huge lump sum payout for half the equity in the house----the house whose mortgage I paid at least 2/3 of every month. Where's the fairness in that? There may have been a time when women were financially victimized by divorce, but I think that time is past, and the culture of victimization just serves to perpetuate significant financial advantages for women in divorce. I'd go so far as to say the financial benefits (getting child support, spousal support and half the marital assets, even if you earned nothing during the marriage) are an incentive for some women to divorce. Money alone is not going to make anyone walk out, but it may tip the balance for a woman who is on the fence.
"Now some kind of man, he can't do anything wrong. If I see him I'll tell him you're waiting." ---Lowell George
