'Manimony': A growing trend as women earn more than their partners

DID you know that more and more men are seeking to to claim their wife's assets when a marriage ends?

In Amercia, this is becoming known as 'manimony' - though some men, unsurprisingly, consider the term a little demeaning.

In Britain, divorce lawyers have also reported a significant rise in the number of husbands going after financial reward at the time of a break-up.

Manchester law firm Pannone says it has seen a 300 per cent increase in the number of such cases in the last two years.

In the last 12 months, Pannone has handled more than 800 divorces as well as numerous cohabitation and pre-nuptial agreements, and civil partnerships. Over the last two years, Ms Wood said that the volume of cases in which men had filed for divorced had grown to account for 15 per cent of the overall divorce caseload - or roughly 120 cases over the last year.

Partner Fiona Wood said this was partly because of more women becoming the family breadwinner by outstripping their husbands’ earnings and a rise in the number of men staying at home to look after their children.

But she said most women were still reluctant to consider the possibility of paying maintenance even though they might be earning far more than their ex-husbands.

“Many women assume that, on divorce, they will get money from their husband regardless of their respective circumstances. They believe that men asking for payments are sponging and somehow not fulfilling their role as a ‘real husband,’ said Fiona.

“Yet they and the courts are having to adjust to the fact that as the traditional breadwinner roles are reversed and more men have wives pursuing careers while they take care of domestic duties at home, such claims are increasing in frequency and validity.”

The increase of men divorcing women is in sharp contrast to divorces generally, the numbers of which fell in Britain by seven per cent during 2006.

Ms Wood said that women’s growing salaries were becoming a common factor in many divorce proceedings started by husbands.

She added that a number of men successfully suing for divorce claimed they were treated unfairly in the value of settlements being awarded.

Ms Wood suggested that one possible explanation for the disparity was that courts were only gradually coming to terms with the new structure of British family life.

“Some people inside the legal system are less accepting of the stay-at-home husband. They simply do not believe that a true househusband exists.

“The assumption is either that, as they’re men, they must surely want to work and be self-funding or that women will do a lot at home even if they are that household’s principal wage-earner.”