Why Marriages Fail

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 896, 5 October 1956, Page 25

Why Marriages Fail

O people expect too much from marriage? This is a point raised by Allan Nixon, one of the speakers in a series of talks on divorce called "Divers Unhappy Differences." The series, comprising four talks and a discussion, starts from 1YC on Wednesday, October 10, at 7.30 p.m., and will be broadcast by other YC stations later. Other speakers are Mrs. Marie Griffin, who will deal with the social aspects of divorce; the Rev. Euan Simpson, who will discuss the attitude of the Church; and the legal position will be stated by Professor A. G. Davis, Dean of the Faculty of Law at Auckland University College. Mr. Nixon, who recently completed a detailed survey of divorce in New Zealand, is lecturer in philosophy at the college. Mr. Nixon claims that men and women in earlier times did not expect to derive from martiage as much pleasure and satisfaction as they do to-

day. The demands made upon a marTiage were fewer and there was less cause for disillusionment. But today marriage places such demands upon the partners that a fifth of those who attempt it become divorced or separated. ; To maintain a marriage is a difficult task, calling for a high degree of toleration and constancy, says Mr. Nixon. But failure in marriage is more often than not associated with failure in other directions-failure to achieve the higher social status and the standard of living aimed at; failure to conform to moral standards and the conventions of society. A poor standard of education is another factor and, in many cases, is associated with pre-marital pregnancy, civil weddings and inferior ~economic status as a cause of divorce, Mr. Nixon therefore concludes that divorce is most common among those who are intellectually, emotionally and economically inadequate.