Divorce Too Easy in U.S.?

Dr. Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, a national expert on marriage and co-director of the research-centered Marriage Project at Rutgers University http://marriage.rutgers.edu, argued in her 1997 book, "The Divorce Culture," that the cultural revolution of the 1960s and the growing emphasis on feeling good about oneself led to a wide-spread belief that divorce was not related to society and divorcing parents felt little or no obligation to consider the effects of their separation like they once did in previous eras such as pre-World War II.

In 2004, Dafoe Whitehead testified before a senate committee on children and families that it was clear that healthy marriages and stable relationships were a necessary ingredient for healthy children and could have positive influences on society, but also questioned whether it was the proper role of government to interfere with a couple pondering whether to end their relationship. “Marriage is not a magic bullet solution to problems of poverty, disadvantage, crime, and discrimination,” she said.

Gallagher, however, is adamant that the private and public sectors must do whatever they can to encourage long-term, healthy marriages. “My overriding concern is how do we create a society where more children, rather than fewer, are being raised by their own, married parents, in decent, loving families and marriages,” Gallagher said. “That’s the goal. I have a basic American belief that when you see something that’s causing so much pain and suffering to children and causing problems for communities and taxpayers there's got to be a way to do it better.”