The Marriage Buyout: The Troubled Trajectory of U.S. Alimony Law

From divorce court to popular culture, alimony
is a dirty word. Unpopular and rarely ordered, the awards are frequently
inconsistent and unpredictable. The institution itself is often viewed as an
historical relic that harkens back to a gendered past in which women lacked the
economic independence to free themselves from economic support by their spouses.
In short, critics of alimony claim it has no place in contemporary visions of
marriage as a partnership of equals. But as Cynthia Lee Starnes a...