Ummm... that would be unconstitutional and wrong (to write the laws only for one sex and not the other). Don't worry.

However, it's not false that the majority of people left worse off by divorce are women. Heck, married women couldn't even own property in their own names w/o an act of legislature; in VA, that didn't happen until 1920. At common law, man and wife are presumed to be one person and that person is the husband. (Blackstone says, "The very being and legal existence of woman is suspended during marriage, - incorporated or consolidated into that of her husband, under whose protection and cover she performs every thing.")

It's just not true that there was only one badly researched article by a woman back in the 1980s; I know there was a big Michigan Law Review piece on this by a guy in the 1990s and that the body of scholarship has continued to grow. It has informed bankruptcy law, child support and elder law.

Judges haven't awarded men as much spousal support, it's true, because most men make more than the women they're divorcing. Few men seek it. I had a friend with whom I used to work who wanted to be a public interest lawyer. Her husband was supportive of this throughout her law school education. He was a musician. However, when the marriage went south and he was no longer going to have someone to buy him studio time, he sued for spousal support based on her future income as a *corporate* attorney and argued that she was "voluntarily underemployed" working for the non-profit organization that was her heart.

I think you have to remember to look at things in their historical contexts. If women have been awarded more spousal support by the courts, it's been because the judges have said "this is what she needs financially to maintain the standard of living they had during the marriage. He can go out and make more money; she has foregone opportunities on behalf of the marriage." Remember that all these financial statements are verified and cross-examined by court and counsel for both sides, and sometimes by forensic accountants. As people's earning power equalizes, I think you'll see spousal support awarded less frequently.