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Talking Divorce: The Role of Divorce in Women's Constructions of Relationship Status

Department of Psychology, Applied Science 3, The University of Hull, Hull, East Yorkshire, HU6 7RX, UK. A.Sandfield{at}hull.ac.uk

This article draws on interviews discussing relationships with 25 heterosexual women aged 20–87 from a variety of relationship status groups. Divorce was portrayed as a negative consequence of flawed individual skills and investments, reinforcing the marriage ideal and obscuring any advantages of this transition for the increasing numbers facing single-again life. Those interviewees who had been divorced did not endorse these attributions and negotiated their social lives around feedback from others employing these interpretations. The ways in which discourses of divorce reinforce dominant marital models of heterosexual relationships are examined alongside the implications of this for the growing population of single-again women.

Key Words: heterosexual marriage • relationship dissolution • divorce rate • single-again • marital status • marriage trends

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