History

• Before the latter part of the 1980s, a presumption existed in many jurisdictions that a wife be given primary custody of the children of a marriage and that she receive alimony payments.
  
  

Maintenance

• By the beginning of the 1990s, the concept of maintenance replaced alimony. Maintenance laws are designed to provide a spouse money for a set period of time to maintain a standard of living. With more women working, a growing number of women pay maintenance to their former husbands.
  
  

Child Custody

• The rise in the number of career women also resulted in more men being granted primary custody of minor children. In some jurisdictions in the U.S., a slightly higher percentage of men are awarded primary custody of their children.
  
  

Child Support

• As more women entered into the workforce, a proportional increase in the number of women responsible for paying child support following a divorce also occurred. The child support obligation of women is tied in directly to the rise in the number of men who maintain primary custody of children.
  
  

Warning

• Because career women have so much at stake in a divorce, financial and otherwise, these individuals need to engage the services of qualified family law attorneys. There are lawyers that specialize in representing career women in divorce cases in many jurisdictions.