SELFISH INTENTIONS - K-REx - Kansas State University

e accompanied by other flagrant violations of morality.” 128 A wife who would have overlooked
conduct by a husband fifty years ago now was filing for divorce on the grounds of the husband’s
action.
At the same time, Dr. Ellwood argued that stricter moral standards led to increased
divorce, he also saw that in some classes of society there was a decay of values, suggesting that
the most basic virtues which needed to be present for the family to operate cohesively were not
present. The virtues of family life included chastity but more important to Dr. Ellwood were the
virtues of self-sacrifice, loyalty, obedience, and self-subordination. He found these virtues had
been replaced with self-interest, self-direction, and self-assertiveness, in effect, the individualism
of the modern age. 129
When asked to summarize the reasons he believed that divorce had increased, Ellwood
seemed to emphasize factors that had changed the position of women. He found decay of
religion within the family and marriage to be the primary reason for divorce. Secondly, the
growing spirit of individualism including the characteristics of self-assertion and self-interest led
“man to find his law in his own wishes or even in his whims and caprices.” 130 He further
explained how individualism among women had spread within the last fifty years as a result of
the women’s rights movement. Third, the growth of modern industry was a factor in the increase
of divorces. The growth of industry opened many new opportunities for both men and women
which led them away from family relations. Dr. Ellwood’s final reason for an increase in
divorce was the laxity of divorce laws.
128 Ibid.
129 Ibid.
130 Ibid.
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