fe” (May 49).Marriage began to grow into something new. Women began to be much more conscious of the importance of their choice in a husband. This idea seemed to give women a sense of power, a power to have choice in their marriage, sex and domestic life. Many women had the goal of finding or catching the perfect man. These women were disappointed when they realized they couldn’t have everything that they saw in the Hollywood movies. This realization ended many marriages of the time in divorce.The under lying concept in all of these changes was a newfound desire for personal fulfillment. Home became a place to satisfy personal desires, and for the first time private life became cut off from public concerns. Among these desires was the ultimate double standard. Women wanted their men to support their families but also to be their fun loving pal. Men wanted excitement and purity. This reflected the desire for the new vitality and the old morality to co-exist within the home.During this time period men were granted a divorce for women who became too independent and seemed to enjoy their freedom too much, meaning they were no longer taking care of their duties at home. Other cases centered on women who were unsatisfied with the lifestyle that their husband was providing for them. Some of these cases were granted to the men and other to the women. Women often desired a divorce from husband who tried to force them to go to work. These women felt that their husband was unwilling to simply provide for his family, most of these women were granted the divorces. Elaine Tyler May did a great job of backing up all of these ideas with many cases from California and a few from New Jersey. This may assume that all California and New Jersey accurately represented America. Perhaps May should have instead sub-titled her book Marriage & Divorce in Post-Victorian California. I am sure that most of these same trends were spread ...
