Role Reversal: Ex-Wives Angry Over Paying Alimony

He got their second house, an investment property she had bought in Costa Rica, and a $96,000 annual alimony payment.

She got angry.

"It's so obscene," said Holly Chiancola, 52, a Gloucester, Mass. real estate agent who is fighting the terms of a divorce settlement ordered by a judge in 2006.

You used to hear about divorced men complaining that their ex-wives were unfairly cutting into their income. Now, as more women become primary breadwinners, the complaints increasingly come from them. The number of American men receiving alimony has climbed, from 7,000 in 1998 to 13,000 last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data

Chiancola's ex, who declined to comment for this story, is among them.
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Do you agree with women paying alimony to men?

As long as men can be required to pay alimony or child support women should be subject to the same laws, anything else is gender discrimination. The whole point of alimony was that women at one time were unable to work or support themselves and that is no longer true, so there is nothing wrong with a wealthy woman having to support a deadbeat ex the same way a wealthy man would. Ideally I would do away with it completely or at least put a time limit on it so that the ex can't just live on it forever.
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Add to favorites Examiner Bio Alimony - the Relationship Reality of divorce

Alimony has an interesting history, one that was basically a half derogatory assistance for women who were seen as the “weaker sex.” Its origins can be traced back to the ecclesiastical courts in England. Since the husband was the sole owner of all marital property, and the wife depended upon him to provide for her sustenance, the English ecclesiastical courts consistently ruled that the husband had the duty to provide for the wife after divorce as well. Otherwise she would become, “a burden of the people.” Heaven forbid there should be any burdensome women around!

While a woman is no longer considered to be a lesser partner in a marriage, and marital property after divorce is divided equally, there is still a feeling that a man owes an obligation to his former wife in a financial sense. This is being debated in family courts. There are people who try to cheat the system and that makes it bad for everyone involved.
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