Economic Gender Equality and the Decline of Alimony in Switzerland

Abstract

Research has established a historical decline of alimony for divorced women in Western countries. Because the main function of alimony is to compensate for differences in couples' economic resources and needs, it is plausible that the reduction of alimony is a consequence of greater economic equality between husbands and wives. Scholars of divorce law, however, have argued that declines in alimony have instead resulted from a deliberate reorientation of alimony law that, by limiting alimony, has sought to facilitate divorces and to cause greater economic gender equality. Through a trend decomposition analysis that draws on couple income data linked to case‐level court reports from Switzerland before and after the introduction of no‐fault divorce (1990–2008), this study assesses the extent to which the decline of alimony is a consequence of reduced economic inequality in couples. During the study period, alimony declined from about one divorce in two to about one divorce in three, but the explanatory value of lower economic inequality in couples is limited regarding this trend. In fact, greater shares of couples' incomes earned by women and more egalitarian distributions of child custody after divorce can explain, at best, half the decline in limited‐term alimony. Greater equality in pension incomes explains steep reductions in unlimited alimony but cannot account for why limited‐term alimony awards for women of working age have become less likely. I conclude that increases in Swiss women's economic self‐sufficiency have not kept pace with the decline of alimony. The hypotheses that changing norms in alimony law are reducing alimony and that less alimony stimulates women's employment thus deserve closer examination.