There are certainly inequities out there when it comes to alimony. However, the “traditional family” is far from dead. There remain a great deal of couples who have agreed, either explicitly or implicitly, that one of them will stay home with the kids while the other one goes to work. Where that sort of bargain has been made, it is entirely appropriate for the courts to enforce it via an alimony order.
Certainly women can get a job much more easily today than in the “old days.” But if the woman has been out of a job for 5 or 10 or 15 years, it will be much harder for her to get a job which would pay her as much as she would be making had she been in the workforce for that period of time.
And let’s not forget the spouses who work and keep the kids to allow the other spouse to finish law school or medical school, only to be dumped not too long after graduation. They’ve got a legitimate claim for some sort of alimony. They made a choice to invest their time in that relationship, with certain expectations (chiefly that it would continue). The lawyer/doctor spouse accepted the benefits of their spouse’s choice in that regard, whether they actively encouraged it or not. Alimony is appropriate in such a situation.
As usual with such complicated questions, alimony can only be reviewed case by case. Where both partners have been working more or less continuously, no alimony would be needed. But where one spouse has taken care of the home and the kids, or where one spouse has funded the other’s professional education, then some alimony is required by basic fairness.
