The family is one of the foundational social institutions in all societies. Through out time the definition of family has varied. In the past the group was viewed as more important than the individual. However, this vision has been tainted and people are mainly concerned with bettering themselves. Throughout history, people have completely change their stances on social issues. For instance, divorce, which created disaster nationwide, corrupted religious groups and human's social well being in the early 1900's. However, in the new millennium divorce is socially acceptable and occasionally used as a device to become financially stable or even accepted in the country. After the Civil War, the divorce rate was steadily rising. The public was alarmed by the dramatic increase. People of the late 1800's elected a divorce reform league in order to conduct studies on family issues. However, the league inevitably fell apart due to failure. Anti-divorce forces shared common views with the Protestant church. The two establishments teamed up and attempted to pass laws forbidding divorce. Once again, their attempt to prevent divorce was an unsuccessful one. .
The nation felt that they were in a countrywide disaster because of increasing divorce rates. "When one marriage in twelve ended in divorce, there were legitimate grounds for concern" (O"Neill). Anti-divorce leaders felt that their time to salvage marriage was running out. The nation viewed that the problem branched from moral and social problems. Divorce was seen as an immoral act and religious couples avoided it in order to evade becoming social outcast. The church insisted that divorce was a threat to the physical, mental, and spiritual survival of humans. Many people felt that with out the suppression of divorce they would socially drowned. .
Fingers were being pointed towards women because it was believed that their main concern was to protect the family.