Going back in the days, Divorce was perceived as a negative action and anyone with the term ‘divorcee’ was basically tagged as a failure in one way or the other. Naturally divorce cases were not as common as it is now, probably due to our strong inclination to our culture and religion which frowns on divorce.

Recently, however it is not uncommon to see young men and women coming out of short lived marriages. A marriage, which is meant to be a lifelong contract now has expiration dates. Due to this new social phenomenon, it is not surprising to meet a young man or woman who might not even be 40 yet with the label; a divorcee.

A friend of mine is dating a divorced man with 2 children. She is in her early 20s and her partner is in his early 30s. Initially my friend did not like the idea of the guy being a divorcee. Even though he had the qualities she was looking out for in a man, she feared that there might be some terrible flaw with his character and that might have accounted for his inability to sustain his previous marriage. After a long period of indecisiveness, she finally gave in to date this man because she felt she couldn’t meet any one ‘better’ anyway.

Another guy also told me the story of how he met a young woman in her early 20s. After a few dates, he found out from the girl that she was a divorcee. He told me that he really liked the girl but the fact that she had been married previously was a huge turn off for him. Suffice to say the relationship did not lead anywhere.

Generally the success or otherwise of a relationship is seen as the sole responsibility of the woman (in the Ghanaian society), as such she bears a huge proportion of blame when the relationship fails. This is why there is such a negative perception on divorced women.

Now my personal believe is that whilst some people do not have the ability to stay married, a lot of failed marriages are because couples chose the wrong partners. Most people marry people they don’t really know, and only get to know their partners after marriage. This results in a lot of clashes due to personality differences. With this in my mind, I can never label a divorcee as a bad person and I definitely wouldn’t mind dating a divorcee.

Now the big question is, as a young single man/woman, would you be willing to date someone who has already walked down the aisle? How would your family feel about bringing home a divorcee as your potential spouse? For the divorcees, do you find it difficult entering the dating market given your marital status?