Many think that an disadvantage of a polygamous marriage is that when more wives are added to a family, tension and jealousy is created causing the living environment in the family home to be less comfortable. This may also lead to arguments within the family, especially between children of the same father but with different mothers living together.
Another disadvantage is that women can feel that polygamy is an exploitation of women as it is a system to benefit male sexual needs than those of women. It therefore can be seen as disregarding to how women feel and what is important to them, making them feel inferior.
An advantage of polygamous marriages, which many Muslims agree with, is that it gives the husband the freedom to have a second wife if the first is unable to have children or becomes so ill that she needs someone to look after her and the household. An example of this in Islam is the story of Abraham, who married a second wife, Hagar, because it was thought that his first wife, Sarah, was unable to have children. For Muslim wives, being a part of a polygamous marriage, may be an advantage as it means that the wife’s duty of looking after the home and the family is not just one person’s responsibility making it easier.
Nowadays, polygamous marriages can be an advantage to women especially if they want to work, as it can mean that they can leave their children with a permanent child minder at home and do not have to play the role of the homemaker as well as having a career. Another advantage to women is that being part of a polygamous marriage means that women can marry men they are attracted to, even if they are already married with out breaking up a family. This is particularly important because there is a larger population of single women than men.
Polygamous marriages means that women can have a female friend for life as well as a husband therefore providing a better chance of meeting diverse needs. Also, although polygamous marriages can mean a husband has to earn more to support more people, in particularly in modern days, it can be an advantage because if some of the wives work it provides more adult incomes reducing the fear of unemployment and lack of finance.
Similarly, although polygamy can mean more money having to be earned by the father, if the family live and work on a farm, a larger family can mean a larger income as more land can be worked on with more people to help.
Another advantage to polygamous marriage is that it reduces the seduction of innocent women. This is because if a man promises to marry her, he cannot use his existing marriage as an excuse for not fulfilling a promise. Also polygamy means that with the possibility that her husband can remarry without divorce, a woman does not need to worry about losing her husband and income in case her husband perhaps wants a younger woman. For the same reason, men do not have to think about leaving his wife and children.
Polygamy can be an advantage as it solves a problem for men, as in some societies it is taboo for a couple to engage in sexual intercourse during the menstrual period and pregnancy. A husband with many wives would not have to worry about this.
I think that it is very possible that polygamy would lower divorce rate in our society today. This is because, if a man is not finding that his marriage is going how he wants it to and he is not content being married to a certain woman, to solve this problem instead of getting a divorce he could simply marry a second wife. This wife could be specially chosen to fulfil the husband’s needs that his first wife does not give him. For a woman, she can marry a man that already has a wife and therefore has already proved himself as a decent husband. This would minimise the risk of divorce.
With polygamy, because it means that more women can marry the best, most attractive men instead of just settling for what is left, it means more women are going to be happy in their marriage resulting in less divorces. Polygamy also reduces the pressure on a husband to commit adultery, which removes deceit from a marriage, which often leads to divorce.
However, polygamy could cause more divorces in our society today. This is because if a man suggests that he wants another wife, his first wife may become offended and leave him. This is more likely to happen in our society today because women are more independent and have their own income therefore do not need to rely on their husband and would not be frightened to leave him. Women also may not be happy about sharing their husband and children and because polygamy can cause jealously between wives, it is likely that one may leave the family.
I think that there is a possibility that if there were more arranged marriages in society today, there would be a lower divorce rate as a husband and wife may feel obliged to stay together. This is because they would not want to disappoint their parents who arrange the marriage.
However, more arranged marriages may cause more divorces as because the couple have never met before they get married, there is more of a possibility that the couple do not get on. If they do not get on together, it would lead to divorce. Similar to the possibility of polygamy leading to a higher divorce rate in the society today because women are more independent, because women have independence, they are likely not to feel obliged to stay in an arranged marriage if they are unhappy, as they do not have to rely on their husband for money.
In conclusion, I think that polygamy and arranged marriages would certainly cause a higher divorce rate in our society today, and certainly not lower the divorce rate. This is because in our society today women are more independent and do not feel that they should or need to rely on their husbands. Therefore they are likely to leave him if they are not in love in an arranged marriage or they are not happy that their husband wants more than one wife in a polygamous marriage.
