If the marriage is healthy then it's good for both parties. What I'm talking about is a broken marriage. If there are kids, a mortgage and a wife who earns substantially less than you do you are screwed. Staying in the broken marriage is the best option for the man in this scenario. If he leaves he will have to provide his wife and the kids he has almost no chance to gain primary custody of with a standard of living similar to what they had during the marriage...at an extreme expense to his own standard of living. On the other hand, if a housewife is tired of her fat stinky husband and his bad attitude she can leave and still get the primary benefit the marriage provided, financial support. Her lifestyle will remain mostly unchanged, other than no longer having to put up with a husband she doesn't like.
I'm not bitter. I've never been divorced. This is my observation of the state of things from the outside looking in. I've never experienced the things I describe. I've only seen it play out in the lives of coworkers literally dozens of times, both men and women. Often I am sympathetic to the women. The way they describe their husbands I would want to leave, too. For the men who get left, well their lives usually suck and they will break down for you their financial obligations to a family that has cast them out and wants nothing to do with them other than to receive child support and alimony payments in a timely manner.
