SELFISH INTENTIONS - K-REx - Kansas State University

to protect women legally, economically, and physically, because they perceived women as
incapable of protecting themselves. Illinois legislators recognized divorce as a necessary remedy
for women and instituted a divorce law that was strategically designed to protect them.” 53 Illinois
became a popular place for couples to get divorced, because the Illinois circuit courts applied
divorce laws liberally. By 1860, the state of Illinois had the highest number of divorce decrees
in the nation.
This pattern was followed elsewhere in the west. Western states that became known as
divorce mills either had a shorter waiting period, a larger number of grounds that could be used
to petition for divorce, or an omnibus clause. The state of South Dakota, for example, shortened
their waiting period to six months, and like most western states had numerous acceptable
grounds for divorce. The distinction between east and west states clearly showed how western
states allowed their restless, mobile residents an easier way to obtain a divorce. 54 This shift in
jurisdiction also symbolized, as Richard Chused argues, “the lessening role of families as a
central organizing force of religion, politics, and the economy.” 55 The patriarchal system within
American society was changing.
Such changes did not indicate that married women had somehow assumed equality under
the law, however. Divorce remained controversial as most Americans still viewed marriage as a
lifetime commitment. But the relative openness of western states certainly allowed women a
greater opportunity to use the law in their own behalf. Kansas was no exception to the western
pattern. In its first decade of statehood, Kansas recognized ten grounds for divorce and in
53 Ibid., 74.
54 Ibid., 73.
55 Richard H. Chused, Private Acts in Public Places: A Social History of Divorce in the Formative Era of American
Family Law, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994), 11.
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