Runaway Wives

Alice left home in Wilmette, 111., to work in a San Francisco supermarket. Darlene, from Chicago, took off for Frankfurt, Germany, to live with a bus driver. Florence abandoned Lake Forest, 111., to become an artist in Spain, and Rose left Hartford to live with another woman in Chicago.

All four women have opted for what was once an almost exclusively male prerogative: abandoning their spouses and running away. According to private detectives, there are now more runaway wives than ever before. Ed Goldfader, a Manhattan private investigator, says that two years ago only 2% of the spouses he was asked to track down were women. Last year the figure was 23%, and this year it is 42%. Chicago Detective William Wilson says that the pattern used to be runaway husbands 4 to 1, but "there has been a complete reversal in the past four years."

Easier Divorce. The increase seems to parallel the rise of Women's Lib, which has led women to expect more freedom and pleasure. Women now feel freer to go off with other men and leave their children to the care of their husbands. Besides, running away has become financially easier. Women have more education and can more readily find jobs. They are more affluent, so they can afford to flee by plane or in the family's second car. They also have the Pill--and the prospect of easier divorce. "Years ago," Investigator Gold-fader sums up, "a girl could run only to Mama, who would have told her to go home. Now, chances are that not even Mama's home."

Many runaways appear to be weak, immature women whose flight is really a petulant plea for more understanding. In fact, 50% of runaway wives eventually go home on their own or are easily found because they have failed, more or less intentionally, to cover their tracks.

But there are many more determined female deserters. Nina, for example, was a 36 year-old Massachusetts wife with a maid, two cars, a country-club membership and a corporate-executive husband who drank too many martinis and made too many passes at other men's wives. Committing what Gold fader calls "social suicide," she fled to the West Coast and took on the identity of a friend. There she got a job in advertising and acquired a new Social Security number using her friend's name. Despite her elaborate precautions, she was located through her real birth date, which she gave in applying for company insurance.

Poor Sources. When a wife flees, her husband is at first apt to believe that she must have had an accident. "She would never do this on her own; I know her," he often says with absolute confidence. In fact, investigators report, husbands can usually offer few facts to help in the search for their wives. In other words, they really do not know them, which was probably a major cause of trouble all along.

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