The traditional view of alimony is that the man pays, and this generally continues to be the case even today. Firm statistics are hard to come by, but there are far more men paying alimony than there are receiving it. In fact, it is still very rare for women to be the former spouse paying alimony.

However, men receiving alimony is becoming increasingly more common. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of American men receiving alimony has climbed, from 7,000 in 1998 to 13,000 in 2008.

Alimony is the money that a higher-earning spouse pays a lower-earning partner at the end of their marriage. Court-ordered, long-lasting (”permanent, like cement,” as one comedian put it), and based on inequalities in spousal incomes, alimony is the source of many nightclub jokes, such as the divorced man who laments, “She got the mine, and I got the shaft.” Gender neutrality – which is established in all jurisdictions in America – now turns the metaphor around.

For the husband or the wife, the factors taken into consideration when calculating alimony remain the same. They include the length of the marriage, the sacrifices one spouse has made for the career of the other, and their current and future earning potential. Because husbands have traditionally been the breadwinners with much higher incomes, men traditionally paid alimony.

But as women move to the tops of their fields, more men find themselves in the position of potential alimony recipient when the marriage falters. It's becoming increasingly common for women to make more money than their husbands, and some estimates suggest that as many as 40 percent of women make more than their partner.

One divorce lawyer suggests a man should consider alimony when: