Has the BC divorce rate increased in the past few years?
Society evolves several mechanisms to deal with the failure of the institution of marriage. As in other societies, Canada too accepts divorce as the means to end a meaningless marriage. Under the BC divorce laws, a couple can be divorced if any of the three simple conditions that the law defines apply to their relationship. The first possibility is that due to the strained relationship, or by choice, the couple is living or has lived apart for the previous twelve months running up to the time they’ve applied for the divorce. The next possibility is that either spouse has indulged in extra-marital affairs or has cheated on the other spouse. The last condition is that there has been cruelty – either physical abuse or mental harassment. These BC divorce laws were brought into effect in 1968 and since then the whole process of being divorced has been simplified and has therefore increased the number of divorces for reasons that were bearable earlier.
Latest research on the increasing divorce rates has revealed the causes and the consequences the nation is facing because of dysfunctional family structures due to divorces. Though the statistics over simplify the rate of divorce as every one marriage failing out of two there is more to read behind the alarming statistic.
The BC divorce rates are at about thirty eight percent for the entire nation and a whopping forty eight and a half percent for the province of Quebec. This is the international average for the western community and other countries like the US stand at an average forty four percent. The Canadian rates include second time divorcees also in the statistics. On an average about sixteen percent of the divorcees had an already divorced husband and a fifteen percent of the failed marriages involved a wife who was once-divorced.
One needs to address the unsettling divorce rates and give it the serious rethinking that it deserves regardless of the theoretical debates analysts and sociologists indulge in. The causes of the rising number of BC divorce cases needs to be analyzed.
The direct co-relation for the increase appears to the simplified 1968 divorce laws. The second reason is attributed to the increasing empowerment of the women. Given the economic independence she now experiences it is easy for her to choose divorce over continuing in a meaningless marriage. Besides the increased work-related stress levels it becomes close to impossible for the women to continue in the conventional roles of being a nurturer of the family. The women find it difficult to handle demanding and overbearing husbands. Besides given the equal status they share with men on the work front it becomes inevitable that men too contribute to their role as protectors of their families and help in maintaining the family as the cornerstone of a secure society.
The need of the hour is to establish newer roles for the husband and wife in the context of the failing relationships of today’s society. The studies of sociologists have revealed that the current Canadian society requires the fundamental institutions of marriage and family to once again build a Canadian society that is stable and secure like the earlier decades of the century. Returning to the age-old Christian family values of patience, to forgive and give between the husband and wife could stem the growing BC divorce rates.