A divorce is never an easy thing to experience. For people our nation’s armed forces, there can be many nuances that add to an already-difficult experience. Military divorce issues such as deployments, handling child custody during assignment transfers and more make a military divorce very unique when compared to a civilian divorce.
With a growing number of female members of the military, concerns about divorce for women in the armed forces is high. The risk of a divorce for military women is much higher than for their male counterparts and the statistics from the pentagon support that. For the past few years, the divorce rate for males in active duty has remained below three percent. In 2011, the rate of divorce for military women was eight percent and has declined in 2012 and 2013 to just over seven percent—still significantly higher than for men.
Many people believe that a decline in the number of women being deployed has contributed to the reduction in female military divorces. Many programs have been created that are designed to provide help to military families and strengthen the marriages in response to the higher divorce rate for women in any branch of the military.
While preventing a military divorce is a goal of many programs, the reality that some divorces will happen cannot be ignored. Anyone facing a military divorce may wish to consult with a lawyer who has experience in military benefits, child custody and other divorce issues specific to the military experience.
Source: Huffington Post, “Divorce Rate For Women In The Military Decreases For Second Year In A Row,” December 18, 2013
