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AIBU?

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Original poster

To ask why woman stay?

76 replies

doonnaKay · 07/02/2026 18:22

My mother stayed in an unhappy marriage. It wasnt bad enough to leave I guess, but now that shes older I'm sad that she tolerated her unhappiness for so long.

I'm in my 40s and have settled into a life where I do not have a partner, but im very content. I'm trying to to understand why she stayed. She would have been financially okay if she had left. Her kids would have been better off not growing up in such an unhappy house.

I'm just wondering why do woman stay? They all have their own reasons, but there must be overlap.

I'm just trying to understand, sorry in advance is my wording or questions offend xx

OP posts:
Ileithyia · 07/02/2026 18:27

Because women of our mother’s generation had very little choice. They were dependent on men for financial security so had to put up with the bullshit. We don’t have to. We have legal rights that our mothers didn’t, we don’t need a man to sign off on us opening bank accounts, buying or renting property, we can have our husbands charged with rape, we can get a job and not be fired for getting pregnant. And so on. Add to that the ‘shame’ of divorce that made women feel like they were a failure if they ‘couldn’t keep a man’.

We are free of all these restrictions. So we don’t stay.

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