Working Woman = Stronger Marriage?
Posted by Laurie
In yesterday’s Sunday Styles section of the New York Times, Tara Parker-Pope wrote an article called “She Works. They’re Happy.” about a new study from the Pew Research Center showing that divorce rates are lower and couples are happier when… get this… the wife is the primary breadwinner and the husband does a fair share of the child care and housework. While it’s been traditionally thought that female economic independence is a leading cause of divorce, this research turns that idea on its head.
“Wives are now the primary breadwinner in 22 percent of couples, up from 7 percent in 1970.”
“Over all, the evidence shows that the shifts within marriages — men taking on more housework and women earning more outside the home — have had a positive effect, contributing to lower divorce rates and happier unions.”
And this increased happiness occurs even when the husband does less than 50% of the housework and childcare. As long as it’s more than older generations of men did, she’s somewhat pleased.
“Even among dual-earning couples, women still do about two-thirds of the housework, on average, according to the University of Wisconsin National Survey of Families and Households. But men do contribute far more than they used to. Studies show that since the 1960s, men’s contributions to housework have doubled, while the amount of time spent caring for children has tripled.”
Who is the primary breadwinner in your house? Do you split housework and/or childcare? Who does more? Does it surprise you that couples are less likely to divorce when the woman works or does this make perfect sense?
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The New Normal: Mom’s at Work, Dad’s at Home
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 9:17 am and is filed under Balance & Fairness, Roles & Responsibilities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.
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