Divorce can have traumatic financial and emotional effects on midlife and older women who have fulfilled cultural expectations by becoming homemakers or accepting low-level, dead-end employment because the husband had the "real" career. This "gray paper" therefore addresses the adverse legal consequences of the rise of no-fault marital dissolution statutes on older women. The first section reviews the origin and rationale of no-fault dissolution, and notes the resulting loss of bargaining power for women as a consequence of these statutes. The second section discusses problems in awarding support and dividing property. Discussion focuses on current limitations and inequities in child support, spousal support, and marital property. The third section, "Encountering the Law," introduces the adversary system of law and its inherent problems as a forum for settling divorce proceedings. Seven legal approaches to divorce are described and evaluated, ranging from cheapest to most expensive: (1) "do it yourself" dissolution; (2) "uncontested" dissolution clinics; (3) summary dissolution; (4) the mutual lawyer; (5) dissolution mediation; (6) default dissolution; and (7) full trial. Attorney's fees are described, and advice on hiring attorneys is provided. The final section discusses strategies for change. Footnotes are included. (TE)