It is my understanding that the decision to give a get was the husband’s. A wife might ask for one but she usually needed her husband’s consent.
As more European Jews came to the US, husbands often used the threat of refusing to give a get in order to get a very favorable civil divorce settlement. Over time, in places like NY, judges had to deal with that Jewish issue. I believe they ordered men to give their wives a get. Without a get, a religious woman could not remarry in the eyes of the community.
--
Shelley Mitchell
NYC
searching KONIGSBERG/KINIGSBERG, TERNER, MOLDAUER, SCHONFELD - Kolomyya PLATZ - DELATYN. All Galicia.