On behalf of Cobert, Haber & Haber Attorneys at Law posted in Alimony on Wednesday, April 20, 2016.
There has been a long tradition of women receiving alimony after a divorce, but societal shifts may make it harder to determine which spouse deserves this support. Although still a significant minority due to gender biases, there has been an increase in men rewarded alimony as part of their divorce settlements in New York and around the country, according to Reuters.
About 47 percent of attorneys surveyed in 2012 saw more women paying alimony than in the past. However, this number still made up only 3 percent of those receiving alimony payments at that time. In the future, more men may choose to fight for alimony.
With more women in the workplace, there are more instances where the husband, rather than the wife, stays home and takes care of the children. Some men may also have a low-income job, relying on their wife to be the majority breadwinner. These men might feel they are owed alimony to help secure their financial future after a divorce, and there is a legal precedent that gender should not be a part of the alimony decision, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling in 1979, Orr vs. Orr. However, it is sometimes hard for men to convince judges that they as deserving as their female counterparts
According to Forbes, places that have a set program in place that bases alimony on marriage length and income do not see as much gender bias as other places. The number of men asking for alimony might continue to rise, thanks to 40 percent of women acting as the breadwinners for families.
