Rosenfeld 2018 — Who wants the breakup? Gender and breakup in heterosexual couples

What the study found

Rosenfeld analysed Stanford's nationally representative How Couples Meet and Stay Together panel, following 2,262 adults from 2009 to 2015. Among married couples that split, women initiated about 69% of divorces, but among non-marital couples that broke up there was no statistically significant gender difference in who ended the relationship. ^[1] The study also reported that married women rated their relationship quality lower than married men did, whereas non-marital couples showed no comparable gap. ^[1]

Why it matters here

This is the primary academic source behind the widely repeated claim that women initiate around 70% of divorces. Rosenfeld's data support that figure for marriages specifically, but they also show the pattern does not extend to non-marital relationships, where men and women end things at statistically similar rates. That distinction — a gender gap in divorce initiation but not in breakups overall — is central to judging how the statistic is used and how far it can be generalised.