It's not so much the woman gets 50%, it's that marital assets are split equally. My dad went through that shit. They took the value of the house, subtracted what was owed, and divided it in half. Plus he lost a bit of his retirement account and a vehicle. My mother didn't work for almost their entire marriage and the last few years she was going to nursing school which made him the primary breadwinner. They did take into account that he set her up to be able to earn a decent living though and before they divorced she was making a substantial income. On the flip side a friend finalized his divorce last year. His wife consistently made more than double what he made. She had a college education, he didn't. He started school to be an electrician and she started cheating on him ending their marriage. Due to the financial situation of their marriage and how many years they were married he got a fairly sizeable check. He didn't feel bad at all either as she was the one that cheated and we all agreed how fucked up the system is that women usually make out in a divorce while men get screwed. They try to be fair in court. The "women get half" thing goes back to when they were all housewives who didn't work.