Published: November 30, -0001

For Many Women, Divorce Can End Long-Term Unhappiness

Women who are stuck in a bad marriage, but have avoided filing for divorce, may want to take note of the results of a study. The study finds that women, who are in poor-quality marriages and get divorced, report much higher levels of happiness after the divorce, in comparison with those women in similar marriages, who did not make the decision to divorce.

The study found that women who reported being stuck in a poor marriage, reported greater levels of satisfaction and overall happiness with their lives in the years following the divorce. In comparison, the satisfaction levels of women who continued to remain in comparable marriages, stayed low.

Interestingly enough, men were not affected by the same factors. For instance, men did not seem to suffer any kind of change in their satisfaction or happiness levels, regardless whether they were married or divorced. The researchers believe that this could possibly be due to the differences in the manner in which men and women define marriage, as well as the manner in which they view their role in the marriage. Women are much more likely to define by themselves by their marriage, compared to men.

However, the most interesting finding from the study was that when women were stuck in bad marriages, divorce actually opened the doors to more opportunities, greater satisfaction and higher levels of fulfillment. Women may feel anxious about taking that step towards divorce, and many women avoid divorce because they believe that it will only worsen their situation. As the study’s findings indicate, divorce seems to provide a very clear and definite relief to women in a bad marriage.