@arblauvelt If we look at it as a type of severance in that she is relinquishing potential future earnings & if we set the minimum amount to be 1 year prior employment, & if her salary was 100k a year, standard severance is 2 weeks pay x # years served = 4k.
That's quite low to me.

@arblauvelt Let's see that she worked for 10 years, in that case she'd ask for 40k. Given median expenses after death or divorce, that would give her a runway of about 10 months & some change if we estimate her husband earned 100k & her standard of living declined 30% after.

@arblauvelt Let's say that she was a 100K earner and the average American household spends $66k on expenses, that would leave $44k surplus that she did not earn.
Reasonably most people can save up to 2K per month on that salary.

@arblauvelt To me a reasonable mahr would be 24-44k based on averages. Note: adjust them per earning potential.
There is a lot of wisdom in these things not being standardized relying instead on living standards & social norms.
Disclaimer: This is all my personal estimate and not a ruling.

@arblauvelt After quickly calculating savings rates after taxes, this is actually much higher than what a woman would have - on average - saved on her own after taxes and expenses.