More from the Catholic Encyclopedia

Divorce was a social program to take care of women.   Also, the Catholic Encyclopedia seems to argue that  forbidding divorce raises the civil and social status of women.

In modern countries which permit divorce, and yet call themselvesChristian, the wife can take advantage of the practice about as easily as the husband; but his is undoubtedly due to the previous influence of Christianity in raising the civil and social status of woman during the long period in which divorce was forbidden. In the long run divorce must inevitably be more injurious to a women than to men. If the divorced woman remains single generally has greater difficulty in supporting herself than the divorced man; if she is young her opportunities of marrying again may, indeed, be about as good as those of the divorced man who is young; but if she is at or beyond middle age the probability that she will find a suitable spouse is decidedly smaller than in the case of her separated husband. 

The fact that in the United States more women than men apply for divorces proves nothing as yet against the statements justset down; for we do not know whether these women have generally found it easy to get other husbands, or whether their newcondition was better than the old. The frequent appeal to the divorce courts by American women is a comparatively recent phenomenon, and is undoubtedly due more to emotion, imaginary hopes, and a hasty use of newly acquired freedom, than to calm and adequate study of the experiences of other divorced women. If the present facility of divorce should continue fifty years longer, the disproportionate hardship to women from the practice will probably have become so evident the number of them taking advantage of it, or approving it, will be much smaller than today.