Many wives who are the victims of physical abuse will eventually divorce their husbands. In this situation, obtaining a divorce may be a life-saving measure. Also, an abusive husband may also abuse his children, making it imperative that the children be separated from him. Also, a husband can abuse his wife emotionally in various ways. He may try to control everything she does by constantly checking on her, or he may be harshly critical of her looks, intelligence or behavior.

The most common reason women divorce their husbands is "mental cruelty." What this usually means, however, is that husbands are indifferent, uncommunicative and demonstrate other forms of neglect. Neglect can mean physical or emotional neglect. Women may complain that their husbands are insensitive and do not care about their feelings. In situations when long separations occur because of a husband's career responsibilities or other commitments, wives may feel abandoned and seek divorce.

Adultery is the betrayal that many wives cannot forgive. Not only is the loss of trust in a spouse devastating, but catching a sexually transmitted disease can be life-threatening. On the other hand, it may be the wife who has an affair and wants to leave her husband to marry another man.

Addictions such as alcohol, drug or gambling cause major problems within a marriage. A husband who cannot control his addiction may destroy the peace of a home, often causing a wife to seek divorce to protect herself and her children.

The inability to agree on how to spend income leads to the breakup of many marriages. A wife may leave her husband if she believes he is financially irresponsible because she wants more financial stability. In another situation, a wife may want more financial freedom because her husband controls all the finances.

Incompatibility may be sexual or emotional. Wives may be unhappy with their sex lives, believing their husbands to be over- or undersexed. In other cases, wives find that they have little in common with their husbands and therefore have little to talk about or few activities that they both enjoy. This situation usually leads to the common reason for divorce known as irreconcilable differences.