Does Gender Matter When It Comes to Alimony?

 Posted on August 09, 2026 in Spousal Support

Alimony, technically called spousal maintenance in Illinois, is a financial payment one spouse makes to the other during or after a divorce. Illinoisans often wonder whether gender affects who must pay or receive alimony. Simply put, a spouse’s gender does not at all influence whether he or she gets alimony.

Instead, the Court looks at each spouse’s finances, needs, how much he or she can earn, and the spouses’ arrangement during the marriage. A husband may receive maintenance from a wife, a wife may receive maintenance from a husband, and the same rules apply to same-sex spouses.

To explore how maintenance works in 2026 and understand how it may affect your divorce, contact a Mt. Prospect, IL divorce lawyer.

Does Illinois Alimony Law Favor Women?

One common misconception about alimony in Illinois is that only women receive it. This belief comes from past decades when men were usually the primary breadwinners and women were more likely to stay home to care for children.

However, times have changed, and so have family roles. In Illinois, maintenance is gender-neutral. Either spouse, regardless of gender, may receive or pay maintenance. The Court’s goal is to address the spouses’ financial circumstances, not favor one gender over another. This applies even if one spouse identifies as nonbinary, transgender, or another gender besides male or female. Each request for alimony must be evaluated based on the facts of that marriage.

How Does Spousal Maintenance Work in Illinois?

Maintenance is meant to help a lower-earning spouse meet his or her reasonable needs after a divorce. These payments might give that spouse time to get an education, training, or employment after spending years outside the workforce.

Maintenance can’t guarantee that both spouses will be able to live the same lifestyle they had during the marriage. Supporting two separate households is more expensive than supporting one. Instead, the Court considers the standard of living during the marriage, what the spouses have available now, and how much they can earn in the future. 

Under 750 ILCS 5/504, the Court may award maintenance to either spouse after considering all relevant factors. These include:

• Each spouse’s income and property

• Each spouse’s financial needs

• The spouses’ present and future earning capacity

• Whether childcare and homemaking replaced one spouse’s career

• The time needed for the spouse seeking maintenance to get a job or an education 

• The standard of living during the marriage

• The length of the marriage

• Each spouse’s age, health, and occupation

• Whether one spouse helped the other spouse’s education, training, career, or earning ability

• Any valid prenuptial agreements between the spouses

• Other factors the Court finds fair and relevant

Having an affair that ended the marriage is not one of the legal maintenance factors. Therefore, whether one spouse cheated ordinarily does not determine whether either spouse receives maintenance.

Can a Husband Receive Alimony From His Wife?

A husband may receive maintenance if his wife earns substantially more and the other legal factors support an award.

Consider, for example, a marriage in which the wife is a high-earning executive and the husband is a stay-at-home father. The husband may have left the workforce or reduced his working hours so that he could raise the children and manage the home.

If the couple divorces, the husband might receive maintenance while he develops new job skills, returns to his former career, or works to become financially independent. The same may be true when a husband gave up career opportunities to support his wife’s professional development. For example, he may have moved to a new city and worked to support the family while she went to medical school. Those sacrifices may have increased her income while limiting his own.

These examples would be treated the same way if the spouses’ genders were reversed. The important questions concern income, career sacrifices, needs, and earning ability — not whether the spouse requesting maintenance is a man or woman.

How Long Does Spousal Maintenance Last?

The duration of guideline maintenance is tied to the length of the marriage, for men as well as women. For shorter marriages, maintenance may last for only a small portion of the marriage’s length. The percentage gradually increases for longer marriages. For a marriage of 20 years or more, the Court may award maintenance for the full length of the marriage or even indefinitely.

An indefinite alimony award does not necessarily mean that payments are guaranteed for life. It means that the order does not have a specific ending date. The award may still be changed or ended.

The Court may also order maintenance that is:

• Fixed-term, ending on a specified date

• Reviewable after a certain period

• Paid all at once, instead of monthly

A spouse receiving maintenance may eventually need to show progress toward employment or financial independence.

Does Gender Matter When Negotiating Maintenance?

Gender should not control negotiations about alimony any more than it controls the Judge’s decision. However, assumptions about gender may still influence what spouses expect.

A higher-earning wife may assume that her husband will not request maintenance. A lower-earning husband may feel embarrassed about asking for it. Those assumptions can result in an agreement that does not reflect Illinois law or the family’s actual financial needs.

Both spouses should look realistically at income, property, debts, childcare needs, health, and the cost of paying for two separate households. Negotiating maintenance based on those facts may help the parties reach an agreement without asking a Judge to decide.

Contact Our Mt. Prospect, IL Spousal Maintenance Attorney

What matters regarding Illinois maintenance is the financial situation of both parties, not gender. The Court will examine the circumstances of the marriage and determine whether an award is appropriate. Everyone, regardless of gender, has the legal opportunity to ask for maintenance or oppose an unreasonable request.

For help with alimony and other phases of your divorce, contact our Northwest Cook County, IL alimony lawyer with The Law Office of Nicholas W. Richardson, P.C. at 847-873-6741 to schedule a free consultation.