Divorce Rates among Women by Race and Income

The divorce rate among American women has been rising but by how much and when did the divorce rate begin to climb? And which women are more likely to be divorced?  Is divorce more common among certain races? What are the socioeconomic differences between divorced and married women? For my analyses I will looking at the divorce rate by race and income among American born women to help answer these questions.

Data: 

I am using census data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) for my analyses. My samples range from 1940 to 2010. I am using 1% samples for 1940 – 1960 and 1980 – 2000. I am using the 1% State Form 1 sample for 1970 and the 1% American Community Study (ACS) for 2010. The ACS is also administered by the U.S. Census Bureau. All analyses are individually weighted with the PERWT variable. I am not weighting samples by household weight (HHWT) because divorce and marriage are individual variables. My analyses do not include women living in Alaska or Hawaii because the census does not include Alaska or Hawaii in the 1940 and 1950 censuses. Adding them would skew my data in 1960. Starting in 1960 the census was collected by mail back form. The 1940 and 1950 censuses were conducted by door to door enumerators. The 1960 census and all censuses after allow self-racial identification.

I define divorced as women listed as divorced, separated or has an absent spouse. I do not use widowed or never married (single) women in my analyses.

I will be using INCWAGE to calculate the incomes of women. INCWAGE does not record net losses for individuals–zero is the lowest possible income. It only records an income paid by employers and includes commission, tips, and cash bonuses. It does not include non-cash assets or incomes. Non-cash benefits will not appear in INCWAGE or in my analyses.

Method: 

My data to only includes women (SEX=2) born in the United States (BPL<= 56). I assign racial categories to each race but combine Chinese, Japanese and Other Asian to one racial group, “All Asian” because of their small population size. I use the HISPAN and RACE variables to create Hispanic as a racial category. Any race that identifies as Hispanic is assigned exclusively to the Hispanic group. This is to prevent double counting when I calculate rates and numbers for race groups. I chose this Hispanic definition of race because according to Clara Rodriguez, “For many Latinos, race is primarily cultural; multiple identities are a normal state of affairs; and “racial mixture” is subject to many different, sometimes fluctuating, definitions (Rodriguez 2000, 5).” Due to Latinos’ different understanding of race, the HISPAN variable is the most accurate way to locate Latinos in the census. Lastly, I exclude “2 Races” and “3+ Races” from my analyses because there is not enough data to make a meaningful analysis with them.

I then use CPI99 and INCWAGE to calculate a comparable income for all decades in 1999 USD. I multiple the INCWAGE variable by the CPI99 variable. Without CPI99 it would be meaningless to compare wages across decades due to inflation. I then created income categories. The categories range from “No Income” to “$100,000+” by $20,000 increments.

I remove never married (single) and widowed women from my analyses (MARST<=4). For my graphs, I graph by raw numbers and by percent. For percent I divide the number of divorced women by the total number of women.

Here is my code. 

Results: 

Figure 1: Income for divorced women by percent divorced. 1940 - 2010.

Figure 1: Income for divorced women. 1940 – 2010.

Figure 2: Income for married women. 1940 - 2010.

Figure 2: Income for married women. 1940 – 2010.

Figure 1 and Figure 2 show us the percent of divorced and married women earning income and how much they earn. Both Figures 1 and 2 include all races. Between 1940 and 2010, more divorced women are working for an income. Additionally, more divorced women earn higher incomes than married women. Both married and divorced women start earning higher incomes ($20,000+) in 1960. Overall, we observe more women earning an income and we see more women earning higher incomes between 1940 and 2010. Emily Merchant’s analysis of white women living alone may shed some light on why women’s, divorced and married, incomes rose. From 1940 to 1960, more white women entered the labor market and more white women were completing high school (E. R. Merchant et all 2012, 10). With better education and a more accommodating workplace, women were able to enter the labor market and earn higher incomes.

Figure 3: Incomes by race for white, black and Hispanic women. 1940 - 2010.

Figure 3: Incomes by race for divorced white, Hispanic and black women. 1940 – 2010.

Figure 3 is the breakdown of divorced white, Hispanic and black women by income. I chose to analyze White, Hispanic and Black women because they are the three largest racial groups in the U.S. In 1940, more black and Hispanic women are earning an income compared to white divorced women. In 2010, nearly all three groups have equal representation in the labor market, approximately 75% are earning an income. However, more white women earn higher incomes than black and Hispanic women. There are many variables that can cause this preference, such as racial hiring preferences for better jobs or better education for white women.

The 3 graphs match the patterns in Figures 1 and 2: the “No Income” category is declining over time and women are earning more, even if white women are earning more than black and Hispanic women. All women experience decline in wages and rise in “No Income” in 2010, most likely due to the 2008 recession–a hiccup in the data.

Figure 3: Divorce rates by race. 1940 - 2010.

Figure 3: Divorce rates by race. 1940 – 2010.

Figure 4 shows that divorce rates for all women have risen by a large amount since 1940. All Asian women had the smallest change in divorce–rising 6% between 1940 and 2010. Meanwhile, Black women had the largest increase in divorce. Divorce rose by about 30% between 1940 and 2010. Steve Ruggles’ The Origin of African American Family Structure may help explain the high divorce rates among Black women. It “could have been a response to the socioeconomic conditions faced by newly-freed blacks after the Civil War and by free blacks in 1850. Second, the pattern could simply reflect a difference in social norms between blacks and whites, which could have developed either through the experience of slavery or could have its roots in differences between European and African culture. (Ruggles 1994, 147)”

Hispanic, White and All Asian women divorce rates steadily rose after 1960 at similar intervals. Figures 1 to 3 may help explain the patterns in Figure 4. As women entered the labor market and earned more money, they were able to afford divorces and support themselves (and their dependents). From 1960 onwards, more and more women are earning $20,000+, enough to support themselves.

Conclusion: 

A study of divorce rates among men and their races and incomes will tell us more about why divorce rates began to rise in 1960. However, given the evidence I presented, I am inclined to believe it is because more women were earning an income, giving them the opportunity to get a divorce. 1960 was also the first census where a noticeable amount of women were earning ($20,000+).  But there can be other lurking variables such as education and external support networks among specific races. Steven Mintz and Susan Kellog claim that black women are more likely to live without a spouse because they created “their own distinctive Afro-American kinship network, largely free from interference. (Mintz & Kellog, 68)” Unfortunately I was unable to find Hispanic specific explanations to explain the Hispanic divorce rate and income trends. Finally, my data does not account for women who got divorced and then remarried in between censuses.

Works Cited: 

Merchant, Emily R.; Brian Gratton; Myron P. Gutmann. A Sudden Transition: Household Changes for Middle Aged U.S. Women in the Twentieth Century. Popul Res Policy Rev: Springer Science+Business Media. 27 June 2012.

Mintz, Steven; Susan Kellog. Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life. (New York: The Free Press).

Rodriguez, Clara E. Changing Race: Latinos, the Census, and the History of Ethnicity in the United States. (New York: NYU Press, 2000). pp. 3-27.

Ruggles, Steve. The Origins of African American Family Structure.  American Sociological Review, Vol. 59, No. 1 (Feb., 1994), pp. 136-151