The Impact of Divorce on Men and Women in India and The United States

Adjustment to divorce has been the focus of a great deal of research in the west. However, relatively little is known about how divorce affects people's lives in nonwestern, developing nations. As Kitson and Morgan (1990), in a recent review, notedCross-cultural research on divorce adjustment is sorely / needed, especially in societies with differing rates of divorce and in those societies that are in transition from more traditional patrilineal cultures. Such research could clarify the relative contribution of particular social conditions versus more universal psychological reactions to the loss of a once meaningful relationship. (p. 919)In this paper, I draw upon the emerging literature on divorce in India and use it to make comparisons with the situation of divorced people in the United States. In doing so, I consider the impact of divorce on economic, social, and psychological well-being. Within each category of well-being, I examine (1) the consequences of divorce, (2) predictors of divorce adjustment, and (3) whether divorce adjustment is likely to be more problematic for individuals in the United States or India. My overall purpose is to assess the extent to which divorced individuals in the two countries face a common set of problems, and the extent to which the impact of divorce varies with particular social and cultural factors.This paper is based mainly on previous research carried out by Indian scholars. Most of this research deals with Hindu marriage; little information is available on divorce among other religious groups. To supplement this information, I met with approximately 50 family researchers, social workers, family court counselors, family court judges, and divorced individuals in seven Indian states. Given that empirical work on divorce in India is limited, I used information from these sources to "fill in the gaps" as much as possible.To guide the analysis, I draw on a gender perspective. As opposed to earlier perspectives that treated gender primarily as an intrapsychic concept (i.e., gender or sex role), recent work emphasizes the notion that gender is a fundamental dimension of social organization (Ferree, 1990; Thompson and Walker, 1989). Both Indian and American societies are stratified by gender, with women having less economic, political, and social power than men. Because gender differences are constructed and reflected in daily interaction, the experience of marriage is quite different for men and women (Bernard, 1972; Thompson and Walker, 1989). The same is likely to be true of divorce. Consequently, I attempt to (1) assess the differential impact of divorce on men and women, and (2) relate these effects to the differing social positions of men and women in the two societies.CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TWO SOCIETIESEconomic DevelopmentThe United States has a highly developed industrial economy. Seventy-three percent of the population live in urban areas, and only 4 percent of the work force are employed in agriculture (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1991, Table 652). Educational attainment is high by world standards: 77 percent of adults 25 years of age and older are high school graduates and 21 percent have had four or more years of college (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1991, Table 43). The per capita gross national product is $21,700 (Populatiqn Reference Bureau, 1992).In contrast, India is a developing society with a predominantly agricultural economy. Twenty-four percent of the population live in urban areas, and 66 percent of the male work force are employed in agriculture (Suri, Bauer, and Rele, 1988). Educational levels are low by western standards. Only 47 percent of males and 25 percent of females are literate; correspondingly, only 2.5 percent of the Indian population have tertiary qualifications (Sharma and Retherford, 1987). The per capita gross national product (in U.S. dollars) is $350 (Population Reference Bureau, 1992).The FamilyIn the United States, the nuclear household is the dominant family form, with the majority of newly-married couples setting up their own household after marriage. …