I've been seein lots of "why don't people stay married today" as if the marriages of generations were way more healthy than those of today & I think it's important to note a bunch factors that are at play there: - familial abandonment was WAY MORE COMMON - women were blocked from financial independence. women couldn't have credit cards in their own name until 1974. - marriages were about status & property way more than they were about the happiness of the individuals in the marriage