Oren on No-Fault Divorce Reform in the 1950s: The Lost History of the "Greatest Project" of the National Association of Women Lawyers @UHLawCenter

Laura E. Oren, University of Houston Law Center, has published No-Fault Divorce Reform in the 1950s: The Lost History of the 'Greatest Project' of the National Association of Women Lawyers as U of Houston Law Center No. 2022-A-. Here is the abstract.

In the 1950s, the National Association of Women Lawyers (“NAWL”) undertook what it considered its 'greatest project', the drafting and promotion of a model no-fault divorce law. It launched its campaign at a time when post-war realities and the law in practice were putting increasing pressure on the law on the books which lagged behind contemporary sensibilities. NAWL acted two decades before the no-fault divorce 'revolution' of the 1970s. It did so in the 1950s when women were said to be both 'domestic' and 'quiescent'. The Article has three aims. First, it considers NAWL’s project as a missing piece in the history of divorce law, the no-fault revolution, and the rise of mass divorce in mid-twentieth century America. Second, it reflects on the implications of NAWL’s undertaking for the standard narrative of 'domesticity' in the 1950s, an account that has been questioned in recent years. Last, it tells a story of women’s activism in the depth of the so-called 'doldrums' of the organized women’s movement. Focusing on NAWL’s 'greatest project', this Article demonstrates the fallacies of an Equal Rights Amendment-centric account of women’s activism in the 1950s. It contributes to the evidence of continuity and transition that has led historians to question the 'waves' theory of women’s movement history.

The full text is not available from SSRN.