Towards legalization of divorce

As I write this (last Tuesday, before leaving on a trip), I anticipate that in the next few days many in the Catholic establishment will get peeved again by SWS reporting on “unfriendly” opinions of the Filipino people. By the time this piece appears on June 4th, SWS will have released to the media a new report that, over only six years, opinions on the issue of legalizing divorce have changed dramatically, from merely neutral in May 2005 to clearly favorable as of March 2011.

The new survey numbers will be on the SWS website by June 4, so I will not cite them here.  Instead, I will cite a past survey to show the distance of Filipino attitudes from those of other nationalities, making it not too surprising that ours is the last country that still legally bans divorce.

Global attitudes towards divorce, as of 2002.  Nine years ago, the following Agree/Disagree questionnaire item was surveyed in 34 member-countries of the International Social Survey Program (www.issp.org):  “Divorce is usually the best solution when a couple can’t seem to work out their marriage problems.”

This was the basic British English phrasing, for each ISSP member to translate as seen fit (including using American English in the United States). For the Philippines, the Filipino version by SWS was: “Ang diborsyo ay karaniwang pinakamahusay na solusyon kung hindi maayos ng mag-asawa ang kanilang problema sa pagsasama.”

Note that the question asked whether divorce is a proper move for a couple in certain circumstances, and not whether it is better for divorce to be legal or illegal.  Divorce was actually legal in all the countries surveyed, except the Philippines, where the question clearly became a hypothetical one.

The surveys found majority approval of divorce, in the given circumstances, in all but four countries.  The percentages that “agree strongly” + “agree” in the countries surveyed were: Brazil 86, Austria 83, Spain 81, Germany  (East) 80, Portugal 78, Chile 77, Germany (West) 74, Netherlands 74, Mexico 73, Denmark 69, Cyprus 68, Flanders 67, Israel 67, Bulgaria 66, Slovenia 66, Poland 64, Northern Ireland 64, Czech Rep. 63, Finland 63, Great Britain 62, Latvia 62, Ireland 61, France 60, Hungary 56, Norway 56, Slovak Rep. 55, Sweden 54, Russia 54, Australia 52, New Zealand 52, Taiwan 44, USA 43, Philippines 36, and Japan 34.

See, the Philippines was second to last.  Note that what is common about Filipinos, the last-placed Japanese and the fourth-from-last Taiwanese is not a Catholic heritage, but an Asian one!  Also note the closeness of Filipinos and Americans.

The Philippine survey was done by SWS from Nov. 15 to Dec. 2, 2002, on a national sample of 1,200 adults, for a 3 percent error margin.  The average national sample size of the 34 countries was 1,371, with the US, in particular, using a sample of 1,171.

Among Filipinos, a minority 36 percent agreed, 50 percent disagreed, and others were neutral.  Net agreement was therefore -14, the minus sign signifying a national balance of opinion against the proposition at that time.

By area, the National Capital Region was different, since 42 percent agreed and 38 percent disagreed, for a net +4 approval of the proposition.  The other study areas were all opposed to it: Balance of Luzon net -12, Visayas net -21, and Mindanao net -22.

The middle-to-upper or ABC classes were also exceptional, with 45 percent in favor and 40 percent against, or net +5 in favor.  The masa or D class (net -14), and more so the very poor E class (net -21), were both opposed.

Opposition to divorce declined with education: incomplete elementary at net -19, incomplete high school at net -15, vocational or incomplete college at net -13, and completed college at net -9.

Opposition to divorce among Catholics was very much lower (net -11) than among non-Catholic Christians (net -41).  Muslims, on the other hand, were mostly in favor of it (net +7).

Global attitudes towards living-in, as of 2002. The 2002 ISSP survey also had the following Agree/Disagree item, “It is all right for a couple to live together without intending to get married,” which SWS translated as “Maaaring magsama ang isang lalaki at babae kahit wala silang planong magpakasal.”

The country percentages that “agreed strongly” + “agreed” are mostly majorities: Denmark 93, Netherlands 90, Sweden 87, Switzerland 86, Flanders 85, Portugal 81, Norway 79, Finland 79, France 79, Germany (West) 78, Austria 77, Spain 76, Germany (East) 71, Great Britain 70, Brazil 69, Chile 67, Slovenia 68, Australia 65, Hungary 64, New Zealand 64, Ireland 62, Poland 60, Northern Ireland 59, Czech Rep. 58, Russia 56, Israel 53, Mexico 53, Bulgaria 49, Latvia 49, USA 46, Japan 42, Slovak Rep. 33, Cyprus 33, Taiwan 28, and at the very end the Philippines 19.

Once again, note the relative closeness of the attitudes of Filipinos, Taiwanese and Japanese, among whom there is no Catholic connection.

In the Philippines, 19 percent approved, and 68 percent disapproved, of living-in.  Thus opposition was quite strong. It dominated in all major areas, social classes, ages, and education groups.  It was particularly strong among non-Catholic Christians.

The above two questionnaire items of 2002 will be resurveyed in 2012 by the ISSP, now covering 47 countries.  Perhaps Filipinos will still rank close to the bottom relative to others, but I would expect their approval numbers to be larger, over 10 years.  Let us see what happens.

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Contact SWS: www.sws.org.ph or [email protected].