Even modern women believe it’s time to end this archaic system. A Boston Herald Op Ed by Jennifer Braceras is the latest to point out the fact that alimony is a vestige of a bygone era.
But why stop at limiting or simplifying alimony? Why not end it all together? The same logic that supports limiting alimony also leads to the natural conclusion that alimony itself makes no sense in 21st century America. In fact, it's counterproductive, for two primary reasons:
- Alimony insults women, assuming that they are incapable of taking care of themselves. Or as Braceras puts it:
current law, originally enacted to protect less-skilled women from being left destitute by husbands who walk out, reflects antiquated notions of a woman’s ability to earn a living in the 21st century
Some may argue that sexism and discrimination still exist in the workplace, but the differences in opportunity are at best marginal. Certainly woman are capable of earning a living. Anyone who believes otherwise is simply ignorant of what goes on every day in almost every business office and college classroom in the country. Any woman who believes in alimony believes that women are helpless or lazy, incapable or unwilling to live up to the basic responsibility of any adult in a modern capitalist society to earn a living.I believe women have every opportunity men have for earning a living. But forget about what I believe. More importantly, our legal system guarantees it. So why does that same legal system treat woman as helpless dependents with its system of alimony? Again, I’ll allow Braceras to make my argument for me:Today, welfare laws reflect current expectations of self-sufficiency, allowing able-bodied persons to receive public support only temporarily. Yet, under Massachusetts divorce law, first spouses can collect alimony for life (even after the payer has retired) regardless of the duration of the marriage.
Here’s the argument for limiting alimony duration. But why not take this reasoning to its natural conclusion? Either women are self-sufficient or they are not. If they are, alimony is absurd. If they are not, the entire women’s rights/equality movement is misguided. I don’t think there are many women who believe that they can’t take care of themselves. Nor do I. - Alimony reduces the pool of eligible bachelors who are willing to marry. Exhibit A: Yours Truly. The potential consequence of having to pay a woman after the regrettable, and no doubt painful, end of a relationship is enough to make some men refuse to marry all together. In fact, the more successful a man, the larger the potential consequence of a failed marriage. So the men who women find most desirable, the successful providers, are those most dissuaded by our alimony laws. Is that a legal system that women should support?
