New York is perhaps one of the more progressive states in the nation, which is why it probably won’t surprise them to hear that female breadwinners manned 40 percent of households in2014. However, it may come as that in the same year, of the 4,00,000 people receiving spousal maintenance post divorce, only 3 percent were men. This demonstrates that thousands of men are probably eligible to receive support, but don’t.
Spousal support is the financial support one spouse gives the other to ensure the ex-spouse can maintain a certain standard of living post divorce. The court considers a number of factors when determining the amount, including income, child support and the length of the marriage, but gender is not one of those factors. Then why aren’t men getting the alimony
they may deserve?
One of the reasons
may be because of pride. Even though more and more women are entering the workforce and reversing gender roles, at the end of the day males may not be comfortable accepting money from them when the marriage ends. According to some experts, even when men are clearly eligible to receive it, they do not even want to consider asking for it, for fear of humiliation or shame as to why are they not following the traditional stereotypical roles of financially providing for their family. Additionally, men have a more optimistic attitude post divorce-they are confident about their ability to become self sufficient and are not worried about their financial prospects.
With changing times come changing attitudes-just like women step out of the workforce to facilitate their husband’s careers, men are doing so more and more. Post divorce, they should also expect the same type of financial assistance they would have given to their wives if the situation had been reversed. It may be beneficial to consult an experienced attorney who can discuss alimony issues with divorcing couples to ensure both parties get the support they deserve.