Out With The Old

It seems the long-held patriarchal social standards in South Korea are coming home to roost.

A news report out of Seoul says that so-called "twilight divorces" involving couples in their 50s and 60s are rapidly increasing. And most of the country's divorces are initiated by women.

According to South Korea's National Statistics Office, divorce among people over 65 has risen by more than 400 percent in the past 11 years. Divorces are on the rise across all age groups in the country, but the overall increase over that same 11-year period is just over 100 percent.

The spike in twilight divorces is tied to South Korea's aging population. In 2000, only about 7 percent of the population was over 65. It's now nearly 10 percent, and the number is projected to be at 20 percent by 2026.

As South Korean women gain access to a better quality of life, both in terms of legal rights and economic status, many of them are opting for divorce. Statistics indicate that 80 percent of divorce suits in the country are filed by women.

The good news is that one attorney quoted in the story says that younger men have more progressive attitudes about women, which may help curb some of these numbers as time goes along. But the story also says that younger couples are prone to "impulsive divorces."

It's a far different society than ours, but in when you hear things like this, it doesn't sound all that different, does it?

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