If celebrity divorces in any way reflected the reality of divorce, most of us would tend to think that women get a very good deal financially from divorce.
The wives of Paul McCartney and Thierry Henry, to name a few, got financial divorce settlements worth millions, despite their marriages being of very short length.
But a new survey has shown that, in reality, women are not taking men to the cleaners but are plunged into poverty after divorce, especially if the couple who are separating have children.
The research into the financial consequences of divorce - carried out by Professor Stephen Jenkins, a director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research – showed that the income of British men rose by 25 per cent straight after a marital break up.
His survey found that the incomes of divorced, or separated men, rise 'immediately and continuously' in the years following a split.
In contrast, the ex-wives’ income fell sharply, with 27 per cent of women living in poverty due to divorce – three times the number of men.
British women rarely regained the levels of income before the divorce and on average their income fell by a fifth, even when no children were involved.
Out of those women who did have children, only 31 per cent of those surveyed received maintenance payments from their ex-husbands for their children.
Ruth Smallacombe, of divorce specialists Family Lawyers in Partnership, said: "The general belief that men get fleeced by their divorces while women get richer and live off the proceeds has long been due for exposure as a pernicious myth. In reality, women often suffer economic hardship when they divorce. In addition, the resentment caused by unfair financial settlements has many knock-on effects."
Professor Jenkins, who carried out the research, commented on his results: "The difference between the sexes is stark. But this is not so much a gender thing as a parent thing. The key differences are not between men and women but between fathers and mothers.
"The percentage change in income is less if [women] have worked beforehand and continue working after the relationship breakdown. There is also a potential positive impact if she remarries."
However, the financial situation is reversed if the man remarries and has children with a new partner, but continues to pay child maintenance to his first family.
Professor Jenkins commented that the only way the inequalities between the genders could be evened out was to tackle the differences between the roles of men and women in the labour market and within the family.
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