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Show Equality in divorces is needed more than ever By DENNIS HINKAMP Consumer Information Writer Utah State University Planning for divorce may seem like the ultimate act of cynicism. Not confronting the possibility of divorce is ignoring the reality of the statistics. Nationally and in Utah about 50 percent of new marriages can be expected to end in divorce. If divorce does occur, the courts have a responsibility to see that divorce di-vorce settlements are as fair and equitable as possible to all parties. However, deciding what is "fair and equitable " is often left to a judicial judi-cial system that often doesn't have much data to work with. Divorce studies can help the courts set guidelines for alimony, child support and asset division. Utah State University college of family life researchers Drs. Jean Lown and Barbara Rowe testified as expert witnesses before the Utah Gender and Justice Task Force to help determine if there are inequities ine-quities in the system. "The state has been interested in our research on divorce in rural Utah because they are trying to determine de-termine the nature, extent and consequences con-sequences of any gender bias that might exist in the Utah court system," sys-tem," Rowe says. "Post-divorce poverty is one of the biggest problems we see," she says. "Incomes of women are often reduced re-duced after divorce while at the same time men's incomes stay the same or increase. The women are often forced to take low paying entry-level jobs to meet short-term necessities. The divorce also meant that the women lost valuable employment-related health care coverage, cov-erage, insurance and pension benefits." be-nefits." Even if the woman is awarded the family home in a settlement, she is often not able to keep up the payments pay-ments due to her lack of income-earning income-earning ability. Rowe says although we have a general notion that splitting things down the middle is the ideal divorce settlement, we have only a vague idea what the middle is. It is not quite as simple as sorting things out "one for me and one for you." What may seem equitable at the time of the divorce may not be equitable down the road. Inequities in post-divorce economics econo-mics or finances may not be based so much on gender bias as socialization. sociali-zation. The roles we take on of wage earners and child care providers provid-ers are difficult to overcome. Lown and Rowe are just starting to analyze data they gathered on divorce in eight rural Utah counties. coun-ties. It is the first study to look closely at the economics of divorce in rural areas. Rural divorce creates some unique uni-que problems. For instance, it is difficult to divide property wnen the couple's main asset is a family farm. |