Should women have to pay Alimony ( Archived) (19)

By Patricia Reaney

NEW YORK, May 10 (Reuters) - Tables have turned in U.S. divorce courts with more women paying their former husbands alimony and child support than ever before, according to U.S. lawyers.

As women climb higher up the career ladder and outpace their exes in salary, when love goes wrong and marriages break up they are being compelled to contribute to the livelihood of their former spouses.

And some are not happy about it.

More than half, 56 percent, of divorce lawyers across the United States have seen an increase in mothers paying child support in the last three years and 47 percent have noted a hike in the number of women paying alimony, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

"It shows that women have really moved up financially and that in many instances they are the major bread winners in a lot of families," said Alton Abramowitz, the president-elect of the academy.

"The glass ceiling has been pierced and more and more women have taken over the financial responsibilities and have been saddled with them as well. It is a fact of the way our society has evolved over the last number of years."

Abramowitz, who has been practicing law for 39 years, described the findings of the survey and the changed role of women in the workforce as a sea change.

In his graduating law school class of 135, there were just six women. Data from the Digest of Education Statistics show that the number of men and women receiving medical degrees in the U.S. is almost equal, unlike 1980 when only about a third of medical degrees were awarded to women.

The number of women getting law degrees has nearly doubled.

"You are seeing the results of that, the impact, now in terms of the professions," Abramowitz said.

Although women have made strides professionally, the divorce rate in the United States has remained fairly constant. About half of marriages in the United States end in divorce. The rate has hovered between 46 and 53 percent for decades, he added.

Just as many men grumbled about paying alimony to their former wives, women are not pleased with the turnaround.

"We see women who are every bit as angry as their male counterparts, maybe more so, when they are confronted with the concept of paying spousal support to a man," said Abramowitz.

The gender switch in alimony payments is just one of many changes he has seen during his four decades as a lawyer.

"When I started practicing in 1973 there was no equitable distribution of property," he said.

The 1,600 members of the Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers handle separations, prenuptial agreements, custody battles, property evaluation and division, the rights of unmarried couples, as well as divorce and child support.

Why not????

That looks remarkably similar to what I posted

Woman already do in Australia, well sort of, we don't have alimony here, but we do have child support and we have superannuation splitting, if the father has custody of the children then as long as the mother is earning more than the father then she is legally obligedto pay child support to the father.It is worked out using a formula that takes into account the day to day expenses incurred in raising a child, taking into account such things as age, schooling, non financial partner support etc, it's not a bad system but of course there are those that whinge about it but you get that every where. Superannuation splitting is just that, superannuation is seen as just another asset of the marriage, and when that fails partners are able to file claim on superannution just as they could for any other assets related to the marriage. so ends the lesson.

It strikes me, if people are angry about financially supporting their own children (and that may include paying the person who's job it is to care for them), then its largely a problem within their own psyche.

In the UK its kind of expected that you may be a full-time parent up until nursery/school age, have part-time employment up until they're 11-maybe 14 years old, but as they become more independent to look towards full-time employment (if the work is available). I can see how an ex-spouse might resent a primary carer making no financial input at appropriate times if payments are a struggle, however.

Its something which really needs negotiating and working towards as a family, even when those families no longer live together. There are so many variables (my daughter became highly dependant again at the age of 15 through illness), but really, bitterness and resentment needs to be expressed elsewhere when kids are involved.

I flinched!