The Division of Marital Property
In the area of property, the new divorce laws have brought about radical changes. Traditionally, in all but the few community-property states, the division of a couple’s property upon divorce was a simple matter. The spouse whose name was on the title to the property was the owner of the property. In most cases, this was the husband.
If the wife had no property of her own, she was given a share of the husband’s prop¬erty. Generally, however, she was awarded no more than one-third of the property. If jointly-owned property was divided, it was often done on the basis of who contributed the most money to its purchase. Again, the husband usually took the lion’s share. The wife was given no credit for her non-monetary contributions to the marriage or to the purchase of property. Her homemaking and child-rearing efforts counted for nothing in the traditional method of property division. A wife’s own career sacrifices to put her husband through school, in order that he might better the living standards of the family, were also not taken into consideration.
Those simple and highly discriminatory rules have been universally overturned in every state. The property acquired during a marriage is now considered owned in equal or equitable shares by both spouses, regardless of whose name is on the title. In many states, spouses are specifically given credit for homemaking duties and an effort is made to provide some level of compensation for the sacrifices of a spouse who aids another in achieving a degree in higher education. The division of property is now based on a view that marriage is essentially an equal partnership, rather than on a determination of who contributed the most actual cash to the marriage. Chapter 3 contains a compre¬hensive explanation of property division and related matters.
© Nova Publishing Company, 2005