Reassessing Chronic Strain: A Research Note on Women's Income Dynamics After Divorce and Separation

Abstract

The economic consequences of divorce and sep a ra tion for women are com monly asso ci ated with the chronic strain model, according to which women's losses are large and per sis tent. This research note shifts the focus to a cri sis model high light ing women's poten tial of, and routes to, recov ery from ini tial losses. Drawing on Ger man SocioEconomic Panel data (1984-2021) on women in mar i tal and cohabiting unions ( N- 27,000 women, N- 3,400 divorces and sep arations), we use fixed-effects regres sion mod els and eventhis tory mod els to ana lyze changes in equivalized monthly house hold income and pov erty risk across the pro cess of divorce and sep a ra tion. Results show that most women recov ered from their ini tial eco nomic declines. Although ini tial losses were com mon and often siz able, large frac tions of women even tu ally returned to or exceeded the household income expected in the absence of divorce and sep aration. Recovery was facil i tated by the "traditional" route of repartnering and the "mod ern" route of women mobi liz ing their pro duc tive skills. Both routes appeared more impor tant than the absence of bar ri ers, such as chil dren in the house hold. We con clude that for the major ity of women, the eco nomic con se quences of divorce and sep a ra tion are bet ter described as a tem po rary cri sis than as a chronic strain.