Full Citation

Title: States of Disunion: American Marriage and Divorce, 1867–1906

Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis

Publication Year: 2019

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Abstract: This dissertation comprises three essays on the historical relationship between capitalist development, state formation and marriage and divorce patterns in the United States. The first examines the effects of liberalizing women’s property rights on divorce. In the late nineteenth century, most American states gave married women new rights to own and control assets and earnings. Using administrative data on most U.S. divorces between 1867 and 1906, I show that rights transfers gave women financial independence from husbands that enabled them to exit undesirable unions at greater rates. However, husbands also filed for more divorces following women’s economic gains, suggesting that the violation of traditional gender norms of household governance also destabilized unions.

Url: https://escholarship.org/content/qt1412c4hj/qt1412c4hj.pdf

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Authors: Roehrkasse, Alexander, F

Institution: University of California, Berkeley

Department: Sociology

Advisor: Neil Fligstein

Degree: Ph.D.

Publisher Location: California

Pages: 110

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Family and Marriage

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