In 1830, the year Belgium became independent, there were four divorces in Belgium. From about 1870 to 1910, there were about one hundred divorces per year, and since 1910, there have been about 1,000. The aim of this research is to investigate the factors that played a role in the increase in the number of divorces in Belgium in the course of the nineteenth century. The research relates to information from four Flemish municipalities for the period 1800-1913. Results indicate that an explanation of the rising divorce rate can be sought in the psychological and social consequences of the more pronounced shift in marriage, gender, and family expectations. Increasing numbers of women threw themselves more and more into their gender-specific expressive gender role, whereas the objective opportunities and attainability of this role did not increase commensurately. The result was role strain: high marriage and family expectations soon come up against intrinsic limitations. As a result of this, both individual and general frustration increased, and this was an ideal social substratum for facilitating divorce.
Roderick Phillips, Putting asunder: A history of divorce in Western society ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
2.
See Phillips, Putting asunder: A history of divorce in Western society.
3.
Manuel Stoffers , "Versnelling, nervositeit en geschiedenis. Over de betekenis van de eigen tijd voor de Duitse cultuurgeschiedenis tussen 1890-1930 ," Kennis en Methode21, no. 3 (1997), 192-203.
4.
Emile Durkheim, Le suicide. Étude de sociologie (Paris: Les Presses Universitaires de France, 1897). Collection: Bibliothèque de philosophie contemporaine.
5.
John Hajnal, "European marriage patterns in perspective," in Population in history: Essays in historical demography, eds. David V. Glass and David E. C. Eversley (London: Arnold, 1965), 101-46.
6.
For Belgian data, see Koen Matthijs, "Mimetic appetite for marriage in nineteenth-century Flanders: Gender disadvantage as an incentive for social change," Journal of Family History27, no. 2(2002): 101-27; for other countries, see David I. Kertzer and Dennis P. Hogan, Family, political economy, and demographic change. The transformation of life in Casalecchio, Italy, 1861-1921 (Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989 ); David Reher, "The history of the family in Spain: Past development, present realities, and future challenges," The History of the Family3, no. 2 ( 1999): 125-36; Evert W. Hofstee, Korte demografische geschiedenis van Nederland van 1800 tot heden (Haarlem: Fibula-Van Dishoeck, 1981); Kevin McQuillan, "Economic structure, religion, and age at marriage: Some evidence from Alsace," Journal of Family History14, no. 4 (1989): 331-46; James R. Lehning, "Nuptiality and rural industry: Families and labor in the French countryside," Journal of Family History8, no. 4 ( 1983): 333-45; Frans van Poppel, Trouwen in Nederland: een historisch-demografische studie van de 19de en vroeg-20ste eeuw (Wageningen: Landbouwhogeschool , 1992); Frans van Poppel, "Marriage as a farewell to youth: regional and social differentiation in the age of marriage in nineteenth-century Netherlands ," Pedagogica Historia29, no. 1 (1993): 93-123.
7.
Katherine A. Lynch, "The European marriage pattern in the cities. Variations on a theme by Hajnal," Journal of Family History16, no. 1 ( 1991): 79-96.
8.
Koen Matthijs, De mateloze negentiende eeuw. Bevolking, huwelijk, gezin en sociale verandering , (Leuven: Universitaire Pers Leuven , 2001); See Matthijs , "Mimetic appetite for marriage in nineteenth-century Flanders: gender disadvantage as an incentive for social change," 101-27.
9.
Bart Van de Putte, Partnerkeuze in de negentiende eeuw. Klasse, romantiek, geografische afkomst en de vorming van sociale groepen op de huwelijksmarkt, ( Leuven, Universitaire Pers, 2005 ).
10.
Koen Matthijs , "Frequency, timing and intensity of remarriage in 19th century Flanders," The History of the Family. An International Quarterly8, no. 1 (2003a): 135-62.
11.
Koen Matthijs , "Demographic and sociological indicators of privatisation of marriage in the 19th century in Flanders," European Journal of Population19, no.4 (2003b): 375-412.
12.
Frans van Poppel and Marloes Schoonheim, "Measuring cultural differences between religions with network data. An example based on 19th-century Dutch marriage certificates," Annales de Démographie Historique1, no. 109 (2005): 173-97.
13.
See Phillips, Putting asunder: A history of divorce in Western society.
14.
See Phillips, Putting asunder: A history of divorce in Western society, 403-05.
15.
Moni VanLook, "Het burgerlijk recht inzake echtscheiding ," in Mislukt huwelijk en echtscheiding. Een multidisciplinaire verkenning, ed. Victor Heylen ( Leuven: Universitaire Pers, 1972 ), 75-91; Wilfried A. Dumon and Gerrit A. Kooy, Echtscheiding in België en Nederland (Deventer : Van Loghum, 1983); See Phillips, Putting asunder: A history of divorce in Western society; Frans van Poppel, "Family breakdown in nineteenth-century Netherlands: divorcing couples in The Hague," The History of the Family2, no.1 (1997): 49-72.
16.
Lawrence Stone , "The road to polygamy," The New York Review of Books36, no. 3 (1989): 15.
17.
Koen Matthijs and Carine Meulders, "On ne se jouera pas du divorce! Echtscheiding in de negentiende eeuw in het licht van de echtscheidingspraktijk te Brugge, 1865-1914," Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis26, no. 3-4 (1997): 64-103. Matthijs and Meulders describe (for divorces on the grounds of certain factual circumstances) the nineteenth-century divorce procedure, using documents from the court archives in Bruges. The procedure consisted of two phases, a preparatory and a litigation phase. The preparatory phase was about conciliation and concealment. The sessions took place behind closed doors, and the magistrate sought to bring about a reconciliation between the spouses. In response to the increasing number of divorces, the length of this conciliatory phase was lengthened in 1905, to allow more time to think things over. The litigation phase was one of conflict, discord, and disclosure. The sessions were public, domestic disputes were aired openly and lawyers waxed eloquent.
18.
Peter Heyvaert , "Dagdagelijkse gevoelens in andere verbanden. Nieuwe houdingen tegenover huwelijk en gezin," in De opstand van de intellectuelen. De Franse Revolutie als avant-première van de moderne cultuur, ed. Mark Elchardus et al. (Kapellen/Amsterdam: De Nederlandse Boekhandel/Pelckmans-Wereldbibliotheek, Tor, 1989/2), 183-202.
19.
Jan De Maeyer , "Relatie en huwelijk in de moderne tijd (ca 1800-ca 1950). Kerkelijke standpunten en strategieën," in Levensrituelen. Het huwelijk, eds. Roger Burggraeve , Michel Cloet, Karel Dobbelaere, and Lambert Leijsen (Leuven: Universitaire Pers, 2000), 33.
20.
Joan B. Landes, Women and the public sphere in the age of the French Revolution, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988); Heyvaert, De opstand van de intellectuelen. De Franse Revolutie als avant-première van de moderne cultuur, 183-202.
21.
See Heyvaert, "Dagdagelijkse gevoelens in andere verbanden. Nieuwe houdingen tegenover huwelijk en gezin," 192-94.
22.
For an international overview of developments at that time, see Phillips, Putting asunder: A history of divorce in Western society.
23.
See Phillips, Putting asunder: A history of divorce in Western society, 255.
24.
Historical aspects of nineteenth-century Leuven are discussed in J.A. Torfs, Geschiedenis van Leuven. Van den vroegsten tijd tot op heden ( Leuven: Drukkerij Emiel Charpentier, 1899); Michel Magits, Demografische en sociale structuren te Leuven (1846-1860). Bijdrage tot de stadsgeschiedenis in de 19de eeuw (Brussel: VUB, Centrum sociale structuren en economische conjunctuur, 1974); Jaak Brepoels et al., Stadsboek Leuven ( Leuven: Kritak, 1985); Marcel G. Peeters, Leven in het oude Leuven (Gent: Stichting Mens en Kultuur, 1992); Van Petermannen en koeienschieters. Kroniek van Leuven, ed. Eduard Van Ermen (Leuven: Uitgeverij P., 1997); Koen Matthijs, Jan Van Bavel, and Ilse Van de Velde, Leuven in de negentiende eeuw. De bevolking: een spiegel van het dagelijkse leven (Leuven: Acco, 1997).
25.
Historical aspects of nineteenth-century Aalst are discussed in Fritz. Courteaux and A. Van Lul , "Aalst in de 19de eeuw," Gazet van Aalst en omstreken13, no. 13 (1956): 170-207; Christiaan Willems, De Dender en zijn Vlaamse steden. Geraardsbergen, Ninove, Aalst en Dendermonde ( Brussel: Artis-Historia, 1984); Dirk Podevijn, Jan Van Gyseghem, and Karel Baert, Van paternalisme naar emancipatie. Een bijdrage tot de sociaal-economische geschiedenis van het arrondissement Aalst uitgegeven naar aanleiding van 150 jaar Kamer van Koophandel en Nijverheid van Aalst en Gewest ( 1841-1991) (Aalst: Kamer van Koophandel en Nijverheid, 1991).
26.
For more information on Bierbeek, see K. Bovin, Vic Goedseels, and P. Van Mellaert, Boerderijen in Bierbeek (Leuven: Centrum Agrarische Bouwkunde, 1985); Emiel Vliebergh and Rob Ulens, Het Hageland, Zijne plattelandsche bevolking in de XIXde eeuw (Brussel: Hayez, 1914).
27.
Wally Seccombe , Weathering the storm. Working class families from the industrial revolution tot the fertility decline ( London: Verso, 1993).
28.
Peter Scholliers , Wages, manufacturers and workers in the 19th century factory: The Voortman Cotton Mill in Ghent (Oxford : Berg, 1996).
29.
Bart Van de Putte and Andrew Miles, "Social power and class formation in the nineteenth century," Onderzoeksrapport Centrum voor Sociologisch Onderzoek , (Leuven: K. U. Leuven, 2006).
30.
Kristin G. Esterberg, Phyllis Moen, and Donna Dempster-McCain, "Transition to divorce: A life-course approach to women's marital duration and dissolution ," The Sociological Quarterly35, no. 2 (1994): 289-90.
31.
See Matthijs, "Demographic and sociological indicators of privatisation of marriage in the 19th century in Flanders," 375-412; Koen Matthijs, "Changing patterns of familial sociability: Family members as witnesses to (re)marriage in nineteenth-century Flanders ," Journal of Family History31, no. 2 (2006): 115-43.
32.
See Esterberg et al., "Transition to divorce: A life-course approach to women's marital duration and dissolution," 290-91; Steven Ruggles, "The rise of divorce and separation in the United States, 1880-1990," Demography34, no. 4 ( 1997): 455-66.
33.
Nancy Cott , The bonds of womanhood: Woman's sphere in New England, 1780-1832 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977); Leonore Davidoff and Catherine Hall, Family fortunes: Men and women of the English middle class 1780-1850 (Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 1987); Leonore Davidoff, Megan Doolittle, Janet Fink, and Katherine Holden, The family story. Blood, contract and intimacy 1830-1960 (Essex: Longman, 2000); Linda Kerber, "Separate spheres, female worlds, women's place: The rhetoric of women's history," Journal of American History75, no.1 (1988): 9-39.
34.
See Matthijs, De mateloze negentiende eeuw. Bevolking, huwelijk, gezin en sociale verandering ; See Matthijs, "Mimetic appetite for marriage in nineteenth-century Flanders: gender disadvantage as an incentive for social change," 101-29.
35.
John Gillis , "Making the family: The invention of family times and the reinvention of family history," Journal of Family History21, no. 1 (1996): 4-21.
36.
See Gillis, " Making the family: The invention of family times and the reinvention of family history," 13-14.
37.
See Phillips, Putting asunder: A history of divorce in Western, 321-22.
38.
Gary King and Langche Zeng, "Logistic regression in rare events data," Political Analysis 9, no. 2 (2001): 138, 141-44.
39.
See van Poppel, Trouwen in Nederland: een historisch-demografische studie van de 19de en vroeg-20ste eeuw164.
40.
Hettie A. Pott-Buter, Facts and fairy tales about female labor, family and fertility. A seven-country comparison, 1850-1990 (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1993), 21; for calculations on the basis of marriage certificates, see Matthijs, "Demographic and sociological indicators of privatisation of marriage in the 19th century in Flanders," 394-96.
41.
For detailed information, see Van de Putte and Miles, "Social power and class formation in the nineteenth century."
42.
Theodore N. Greenstein, "Marital disruption and the employment of married women," Journal of Marriage and the Family52, no. 3 (1990): 657-76; Tineke Fokkema and Aart C. Liefbroer, "Employment and divorce among Dutch women born between 1903 and 1937," The History of Family9, no.4 (2004): 426; van Poppel, "Family breakdown in nineteenth-century Netherlands: Divorcing couples in The Hague," 49-72.
43.
Angélique Janssens , Family and social change. The household as a process in an industrializing community (London: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
44.
See Matthijs, De mateloze negentiende eeuw. Bevolking, huwelijk, gezin en sociale verandering .
45.
See the references at Greenstein, "Marital disruption and the employment of married women."
46.
William J. Goode, "A sociological perspective on marital dissolution," in Sociology of the family: Selected readings , ed. Michael Anderson ( Harmondsworth: Penguin books, 1971 ), 301-20; Alan Booth and John N. Edwards , "Age at marriage and marital instability," Journal of Marriage and the Family47, no. 1 (1985): 67-75; Scott J. South and Glenna Spitze, "Determinants of divorce over the marital life course," American Sociological Review51, no. 4 (1986): 583-90; Larry L. Bumpass, Teresa C. Martin, and James A. Sweet, "The impact of family background and early marital factors on marital disruption," Journal of Family Issues12, no. 1 (1991): 22-42.
47.
See van Poppel , "Family breakdown in nineteenth-century Netherlands: divorcing couples in The Hague," 49-72.
48.
See Booth and Edwards, " Age at marriage and marital instability," 67-69.
49.
See van Poppel , "Family breakdown in nineteenth-century Netherlands: divorcing couples in The Hague," 49-72.
50.
See van Poppel , "Family breakdown in nineteenth-century Netherlands: divorcing couples in The Hague," 49-72.
51.
See van Poppel , "Family breakdown in nineteenth-century Netherlands: divorcing couples in The Hague," 62.
52.
Rik Wintein , Sociografische analyse van de huwelijksverbreking te Gent en Brugge, late achttiende-negentiende eeuw. Enkele terreinverkenningen, Licentiaatsthesis (Gent, UGent, 1983); See van Poppel, "Family breakdown in nineteenth-century Netherlands: Divorcing couples in The Hague," 49-72; See Fokkema and Liefbroer , "Employment and divorce among Dutch women born between 1903 and 1937," 425-42; See Phillips , Putting asunder: A history of divorce in Western society.
53.
Claude S. Fischer, "The subcultural theory of urbanism. A twentieth-year assessment," American Journal of Sociology101, no. 3 (1995): 566-68.
54.
See Wintein, Sociografische analyse van de huwelijksverbreking te Gent en Brugge, late achttiende-negentiende eeuw. Enkele terreinverkenningen, 237-40; See van Poppel, "Family breakdown in nineteenth-century Netherlands: Divorcing couples in The Hague," 62.
55.
See Phillips, Putting asunder: A history of divorce in Western society, 606-10.
56.
Dominique Dessertine, Divorcer à Lyon sous la Révolution et l'Empire (Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 1981).
57.
Fokkema and Liefbroer, "Employment and divorce among Dutch women born between 1903 and 1937," 430.
58.
Matthijs, De mateloze negentiende eeuw. Bevolking, huwelijk, gezin en sociale verandering, 140-47.
59.
van Poppel, "Family breakdown in nineteenth-century Netherlands: Divorcing couples in The Hague," 62.
60.
Sas Institute, "Generalized coefficient of determination," in SAS OnlineDoc, Version 8 (Cary, NC: SAS Institute, 1999a).
61.
Sas Institute, "The Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test," in SAS OnlineDoc, Version 8 (Cary, NC: SAS Institute, 1999b).
62.
See Matthijs, De mateloze negentiende eeuw. Bevolking, huwelijk, gezin en sociale verandering ; See Matthijs, "Mimetic appetite for marriage in nineteenth-century Flanders: gender disadvantage as an incentive for social change," 101-27; See Matthijs, "Frequency, timing and intensity of remarriage in 19th century Flanders," 135-62; See Matthijs, "Demographic and sociological indicators of privatisation of marriage in the 19th century in Flanders," 375-12; See Matthijs, "Changing patterns of familial sociability: Family members as witnesses to (re)marriage in nineteenth-century Flanders," 115-43.
63.
See Gillis, " Making the family: The invention of family times and the reinvention of family history," 4-21.
64.
See Matthijs, "Mimetic appetite for marriage in nineteenth-century Flanders: Gender disadvantage as an incentive for social change," 101-27.
65.
John Gillis , For better, for worse: British marriages, 1600 to the present ( New York, Oxford University Press, 1985).
66.
Gabrielle Houbré , Histoire des mères et filles ( Paris: Editions de La Martinière, 2006).
67.
Robert Roberts , The classic slum: Salford life in the first quarter of the century (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1973).
68.
See Gillis, " Making the family: the invention of family times and the reinvention of family history," 4-21.
