Why Women Choose to Divorce.

The advantage of being a custodial parent instead of noncustodial is largely a financial one by women who perceive a benefit from filing a divorce or declining a marriage proposal.

Marriage represents uncertainty for women "for better or worse", while government programs (from CS collection to EITC, etc) are a sure thing. In uncertain economic times, particlarly among people near the bottom of the economic spectrum, the security of these government programs is more attractive than the uncertainty of getting or staying married - they become a government divorce incentive system.

For men, Marriage represents a substantial risk of losing savings or investment into a marriage. Investing in a family is likely the most substantial investment of time and effort a man can make. Knowing that women typically 'win' no fault divorces, and walk away with
virutally everything including the house, the marital savings, the car, the children, and even his future earnings... men prudently view marriage as a sort of unilateral debt obligation that women may 'cash in' at any time, and leave them financially destitute and in emotional distress over the loss of thier children.

The divorce incentive system works for women because the expectation of winning most or sole custody. In other words, it must be known that the no-fault divorce petition will probably be interpreted as a demand to exclude the other (defendant) parent from the family. This is 100% opposite to a request upon the judge for permission to leave the family, as divorces are often portrayed.

Margaret F. Brinig, in "These Boots Are Made For Walking: Why Most Divorce Filers Are Women", describes "expectation of sole custody" and its effect on divorce filing decisions. This report has been criticized as biased, for example it presumes all reports of 'cruelty' made in a divorce are true, and that all courts are 'fair' or just in terms of allocating custody. It does provide some fairly reasonable conclusions:
"Our results are consistent with our hypothesis that filing behavior is driven by self-interest at the time of divorce..... We have found that who gets the children is by far the most important component in deciding who files for divorce, particularly when there is little quarrel about property, as when the separation is long. .... Because the custody coefficients were the largest by far, family law reformers may want to concentrate on formulating custody rules that will alter the spouses’ relative gains from marriage."

In some jurisdictions, 80% or more of divorces are filed by women. Women aren't choosing to deliberately sabotage their economic health, they are securing benefits for themselves and their children. The U.S.C.B. reports (Pub. P60-230) that 83.1% of sole custodial parents are female, and this knowedge is the assurance to a female plaintiff that she can file with almost 85% confidence in the outcome.