South Carolina

It is virtually impossible to quantify the influence of one partner over the other partner's earning ability over that length of time. Although marital status shouldn't influence things such as promotions in reality it does as married employees are viewed as being more stable and committed to long term employment than single person. If there are children involved, the married employees has the availability of the partner to help provide childcare that the single person does not have so it also benefits the employer. Then there are the contributions that the employee makes towards to the retirement system that should be divided between the spouses. It appears that Illinois is reasonable about considering the income potential of both spouses as to determining the amount paid for alimony, but other states may only look at what is codified into law without giving consideration to the living circumstances of both partners.

At the same time, I could see that in the situation described in the OP it might be that it is a group of men that don't want their former wives to get anything which is definitely not fair. I would have to know more about the situation in South Carolina to comment any further though.