Introduction: Divorce, 1970s style -- From alimony to breeding cows : women and the divorce law revolution -- From the altar to the grave : the beginnings of the feminist divorce reform movement -- Partners or parasites? : class, race and credit rights -- The privileges of marriage : divorced women and selective entitlements to health care -- Marriage as work, marriage as partnership : divorced women's fight for social security -- "How you lose money by being a woman" : divorce in an age of proliferating retirement savings options -- An expensive endurance test : compromising toward success in the 1980s -- "Responsibility, equity : not cruelty" changing venues for feminist divorce reformers -- "Saving the next generation" : the changing politics of divorce -- Conclusion: No-fault divorce in a morality-based welfare system
Summary
Divorce, American Style contests the frequent claim that marriage has become a more flexible legal status over time. Enduring ideas about marriage and the family continue to have a powerful effect on the structure of a wide range of social programs in the United States
