This study outlines a long history of divorce in Sweden, recognizing the importance of considering both economic and cultural factors in the analysis of marital dissolution. Following Ansley Coale, the authors examine how a framework of multiple theoretical constructs, in interaction, can be applied to the development toward mass divorce. Applying a long historical perspective, the authors argue that an analysis of gendered aspects of the interaction between culture and economics is crucial for the understanding of the rise of mass divorce. The empirical analysis finds support for a marked decrease in legal and cultural obstacles to divorce already during the first decades of the twentieth century. However, economic structures remained a severe obstacle that prohibited significant increases in divorce rate prior to World War II. It was only during the 1940s and 1960s, when cultural change was complemented by marked decreases in economic interdependence between spouses, that the divorce rate exhibited significant increases. The authors find that there are advantages to looking at the development of divorce as a history in which multiple empirical factors are examined in conjunction, recognizing that these factors played different roles during different time periods.
Ansley Coale, ‘‘The Demographic Transition,’’ in The Population Debate: Dimensions and Perspectives. Papers of the World Population Conference, Bucharest 1974 ( New York: United Nations, 1975), 353.
2.
Ron Lestaeghe and Camille Vanderhoeft, ‘‘Ready, Willing, and Able: A Conceptualization of Transitions to New Behavioral Forms,’’ in Diffusion Processes and Fertility Transition, ed. John B. Casterline (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2001), 240-5.
3.
Between 1950 and 1965, the proportion of the population employed in the agricultural and forestry sector dropped from 20 percent to 10 percent, and since the 1980s has been below 5 percent. Historical Statistics. Part 1. Population (Stockholm: National Central Bereau of Statistics, 1969), 83; Lennart Schön, En modern svensk ekonomisk historia. tillväxt och omvandling under två sekel (Stockholm: SNS förlag, 2000), 476.
4.
Most well known is without a doubt author and playwright August Strindberg, who relentlessly argued for a liberal view on marriage and the independence of the parties to it, although often from a misogynistic perspective. His predecessor Carl Johan Love Almqvist was equally radical and perhaps less mis ogynistic. His book Det går an, published in 1838, a decade before Strindberg was born, represents a very liberal view on marriage, arguing of the necessity for the economic independence of the wife for a happy marriage and the right to no-fault divorce. It created quite a controversy, not only in the public sphere but also in the Church, where several renowned theologians as well as the Archbishop published in defense of the traditional view. Stig Hellsten, Kyrklig och radikal äktenskapsuppfattning i striden kring C. J. L. Almqvists Det går an (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells boktryckeri, 1951), 231 ff. See also Henrik Bergg ren and Lars Trägårdh, Är svensken människa?: gemenskap och oberoende i det moderna Sverige (Stockholm: Norstedt, 2006), 127 ff.
5.
Ulrich Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (London: Sage 1992), 103-26; Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim, The Normal Chaos of Love (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995), 3-10; Anthony Giddens, The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992), 61-4.
6.
Ron Lesthaeghe, ‘‘The Unfolding Story of the Second Demographic Transition’’ in Population Studies Center Research Report (Ann Arbor : University of Michigan, 2010), 3-10; Johan Surkyn and Ron Lesthaeghe, ‘‘Value Orientations and the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) in Northern, Western and Southern Europe: An Update,’’ Demographic Research 3 (2004): 47-8.
7.
Ronald Inglehart, Modernization and Postmodernization. Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 276-86.
8.
Shelley Lundberg and Robert A. Pollack, ‘‘Bargaining and Distribution in Marriage,’’ Journal of Economic Perspectives 10, no. 4 (1996): 139-58; Marilyn Manser and Murray Brown, ‘‘Marriage and Household Decision-Making: A Bargaining Analysis,’’ International Economic Review 21, no. 1 (1980): 31-44; Marjorie B. McElroy, ‘‘The Empirical Content of Nash-Bargained Household Behavior,’’ in The Economics of the Family, ed. Nancy Folbre (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 1990): 559-83.
9.
Nancy Folbre, Who Pays for the Kids? Gender and the Structures of Constraint (London &New York: Routledge, 1994), 155-6.
10.
Alice Kessler-Harris , ‘‘In Pursuit of Economic Citizenship,’’Social Politics10, no. 2 (2003), 160-1.
11.
Ulla Wikander, Feminism, familj och medborgarskap. Debatter på internationella kongresser om nattarbetsförbud för kvinnor 1889-1919 (Göteborg : Makadam förlag, 2006), 327 f.
12.
Matthijs Kalmijn and Anne-Rigt Poortman, ‘‘His or Her Divorce? The Gendered Nature of Divorce and its Determinants,’’European Sociological Review32, no. 2 (2006): 201-14.
13.
See for example Mary A. Dolan and Charles D. Hoffman, ‘‘Determinants of Divorce Among Women- A Re-examination of Critical Influences,’’ Journal of Divorce & Remarriage 28, no. 3 (1998): 97-106; Matthijs Kalmijn and Paul M. De Graaf, ‘‘Change and Stability in the Social Determinants of Divorce: A Comparison of Marriage Cohorts in the Netherlands,’’ European Sociological Review 22, no. 5 (2006): 561-72; Matthijs Kalmijn, Paul M. De Graaf, and Anne-Rigt Poortman, ‘‘Interactions between Cultural and Economic Determinants of Divorce in the Netherlands,’’ Journal of Marriage and Family 66, no. 1 (2004): 75-89; Lee A. Lillard and Linda J. Waite, ‘‘Determinants of Divorce,’’ Social Security Bulletin 53, no. 2 (1990): 29-31; Koen Matthijs, Anneleen Baerts, and Bart Van De Putte, ‘‘Determinants of Divorce in Nineteenth-Century Flanders,’’ Journal of Family History 33, no. 3 (2008): 239-61; Scott J. South and Glenna Spitze, ‘‘Determinants of Divorce over the Marital Life Course,’’ American Sociological Review 51, no. 4 (1986): 583-90; Lynn K. White, ‘‘Determinants of Divorce: A Review of Research in the Eighties,’’ Journal of Marriage and the Family 52, no. 4 (1990): 904-12.
14.
Roderick Phillips , Putting Asunder: A History of Divorce in Western Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 582 f, 636 ff.
15.
It could be of interest to note that it has later been shown that such an account of behavior based on norms cannot rely solely on the expected punishment of others, as this would lead to a situation of infinite regress, in which people would need to punish those who fail to punish those who did not comply with a norm, and so on. Hence, to some extent, behavior complying with norms must be at least partially internalized. Jon Elster, The Cement of Society: A Study of Social Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 132-3.
16.
Coale, ‘‘The Demographic Transition,’’ 347-55.
17.
Carle Zimmerman and Merle Framton, Family and Society: A Study of the Sociology of Reconstruction (London: Williams and Norgate, 1935), 588 f.
18.
Gunnar Boalt, Familjesociologi (Stockholm: Natur och kultur, 1959), 170 ff; Morris Zelditich, ‘‘Role Differentiation in the Nuclear Family: A Comparative Study,’’ in Family, Socialization and Interaction Process, ed. Talcott Parsons and Robert F. Bale (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1955), 307-51; Curt Åmark, ‘‘Familjens kris i modernt samhällsliv,’’ Nordisk psykiatrisk medlemsblad 10, no. I (1956): 101-108.
19.
Pierre Bourdieu , Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (London & New York : Routledge, 1998), 13-25.
20.
Per Simonsson , Bidrag till familjens ekonomiska historia. Inflytandet över konsumtionen inom svenska hushåll under 1900-talet ( Stockholm: Almqvist & Wicksell International, 2005); Maria Stanfors, Education, Labor Force Participation and Changing Fertility Patterns (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2003), 108-18.
21.
It excludes degrees from specialized technical and commercial schools as gender-differentiated data are not available in these cases. These degrees, however, constitute small minorities of the total number of graduates. See Rolf Ohlsson, Högre utbildning och demografisk förändring (Lund: Ekonomisk-historiska föreningen, 1986), 257.
22.
Receiving a high school diploma constituted somewhat of a divider between the educated and noneducated, although it was not the lowest form of non-compulsory education (only grades one through six were). High school graduation was relatively uncommon in the 1950s, totaling 4,497 in 1950 of approximately 83,000 18-year-olds in the total population. Ibid, 257; SCB. Historisk statistik för Sverige. Del 1, Population: 1720-1967. Örebro: Statistiska centralbyrån (SCB), 1969, 68.
23.
For further details see Lars Svensson, Closing the Gender Gap. Determinants of Change in the Female-to-Male Blue Collar Wage Ratio in Swedish Manufacturing 1913-1990 (Lund: Lunds universitet, Ekonomisk-historiska institutionen, 1995), 9. We would like to thank Svensson, as well as Maria Stanfors, for providing us with the data.
24.
Jane Lewis, ‘‘Gender and the Development of Welfare Regimes,’’Journal of European Social Policy2, no. 3 (1992): 168-71.
25.
Lena Sommestad , ‘‘Privat Eller Offentlig Välfärd? Ett Genusperspektiv På Välfärdsstatens Formering,’’Historisk tidskrift, no. 4 ( 1994): 601-29.
26.
Florence Jaumotte, Female Labour ForceParticipation: Past Trends and Main Determinants in OECD Countries (Paris, France: OECD, Economics Department, December 2003), 2; Klas Åmark, ‘‘Women’s Labour Force Participation in the Nordic Countries during the Twentieth Century’’ in The Nordic Model of Welfare: A Historical Reappraisal ( Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2006), 319; Anita Nyberg, ‘‘Vad Är Förvärvsarbete?’’ Kvinnovetenskaplig tidskrift 8, no. 1(1987 ): 54-65.
27.
Data are based on Edvinsson’s calculations in Rodney Edvinsson, Growth, Accumulation, Crisis: With New Macroeconomic Data for Sweden 1800-2000 (Stockholm University, 2005), 375-85.
28.
Data extracted from Ibid, 307-17.
29.
Koen Matthijs, Anneleen Baerts, and Bart Van de Putte, ‘‘Determinants of Divorce in Nineteenth-Century Flanders,’’ Journal of Family History 33, no. 3 (July 1, 2008): 239-61; Marja Taussi Sjöberg, Skiljas: trolovning, äktenskap och skilsmässa i Norrland på 1800-talet (Stockholm: Författarförlaget, 1988), 72; Norval D. Glenn and Beth Ann Shelton, ‘‘Regional Difference in Divorce in the United States,’’ Journal of Marriage and the Family 47, no. 3 (1985): 641-52; White, ‘‘Determinants of Divorce,’’ 905.
30.
Göran Therborn, Between Sex and Power. Family in the World, 1900-2000 (London & New York: Routledge, 2004), 22.
31.
William J.Goode, World Revolution and Family Patterns (New York: The Free Press, 1970), 83.
32.
For a description of the principles used by Statistics Sweden for the classification of rural and urban municipalities, see Hans Ylander, ‘‘Urbanisering och tätortsutveckling i Sverige,’’ in Markanvändningen i Sverige (Örebro: Statistiska centralbyrån, 2004), 80-84.
33.
For a more detailed discussion see Le Bouteillec et al. in the present issue.
34.
Kari Melby et al., Inte ett ord om kärlek: äktenskap och politik i Norden ca 1850-1930 (Göteborg: Makadam , 2006), 159-78.
35.
Kari Melby et al., ‘‘The Nordic Model of Marriage,’’Women’s History Review15 (September 2006): 654.
36.
The fourth paragraph of the new law also had the character of no-fault, stating that divorce could be granted without a preceding formal separation if the spouses had lived apart for a period of at least three years. Birger Ekeberg, Äktenskapslagstiftningen: en översikt över 1915 års lagar och författningar (Stockholm: Nationalförlaget, 1917), 40-44.
37.
Ibid., 47-50.
38.
Phillips, Putting Asunder, 585; Robert Chester, ‘‘Conclusion,’’ in Divorce in Europe, ed. Robert Chester (Leiden: Nijhoff , 1977), 294-7.
39.
Phillips, Putting Asunder, 585; Robert Chester, ‘‘Conclusion,’’ in Divorce in Europe, ed. Robert Chester ( Leiden: Nijhoff, 1977), 294-97.
40.
Goode, World Changes in Divorce Patterns, 84, 139.
41.
A conspicuous exception to this general pattern was Austria, with its predominantly Roman Catholic population that exhibited higher divorce rates than most north European countries until the late 1950s. Max Haller, ‘‘Austria,’’ in Divorce in Europe, ed. Robert Chester (Leiden: Nijhoff, 1977), 245-6; Robert Chester, ‘‘Conclusion,’’ in Divorce in Europe, ed. Robert Chester (Leiden: Nijhoff, 1977), 294-97.
42.
Phillips, Putting Asunder, 585.
43.
Goode, World Changes in Divorce Patterns, 84, 139.
44.
Linda Lane, Trying to Make a Living: Studies in the Economic Life of Women in Interwar Sweden (Göteborg: Ekonomisk-historiska institutionen, Göteborgs universitet, 2004), 202.
45.
Kungliga Socialstyrelsen, Ensamstående mödrars sociala och ekonomisak förhållanden år 1955 (Stockholm, 1957), 12, 32-33.
46.
Gregory Swedberg , ‘‘Divorce and Marital Equality in Orizaba, Mexico, 1915-1940,’’Journal of Family History34, no. 1 (2009), 116-37.
47.
Matthijs Kalmijn and Anne-Rigt Poortman, ‘‘His or Her Divorce? The Gendered Nature of Divorce and its Determinants,’’ European Sociological Review 22, no. 2 (April 1, 2006): 205; Jan Trost, ‘‘Sweden,’’ in Divorce in Europe, ed. Robert Chester (Leiden: Nijhoff, 1977), 47-50; Phillips, Putting Asunder, 592-4; Goode, World Changes in Divorce Patterns, 29-30.
48.
For an introduction to these findings see Karla B. Hackstaff, Marriage in a Culture of Divorce (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999), 48-50. This gender pattern also appears in studies on Swedish data from the 1970s. Questionnaire data collected by Jan Trost and Örjan Hultåker from a random sample of individuals who finalized their divorces in 1971 show a clear effect of gender in the self-reporting of the initiative to file for divorce. In this survey, 67 percent of the women report that they were the primary initiator of the divorce whereas only 10 percent indicate that their husband initiated it. Although the men report a somewhat lower proportion of female initiative, they also identify their wife as the initiator more often than themselves. Jan Trost and Örjan Hultåker, Swedish Divorcees: Methods and Responses (Uppsala: Department of Sociology, Uppsala University, 1982), 53.
49.
Marja TaussiSjöberg, Skiljas: trolovning, äktenskap och skilsmässa i Norrland på 1800-talet, 115-6.
50.
Maria Stanfors , Mellan arbete och familj: ett dilemma för kvinnor i 1900-talets Sverige (Stockholm: SNS förlag, 2007), 81.
51.
Ibid., 84.
52.
Ibid., 83.
53.
Statistics Sweden, Befolkningsrörelsen. Årsböcker 1911-1966; Statistics Sweden, Befolkningsförändringar. Del 3, Hela riket och länen m m. Årsböcker Å 1967-1992.
