Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Some marriage research

I'm not someone who thinks that the only important role that men play in the family is a provider one. Still, it is a significant role as it's part of the way that a man tries to create a protected space for his wife to have children and create a warm home life for the family.

So upending normal arrangements and having the woman instead be the breadwinner is likely to create tensions within at least some marriages. Here are some research findings released back in 2010:
a 25-year study that tracked 2,500 married couples found that female breadwinners were 40 percent more likely to divorce their lower-earning husbands than women who raked in less than their partners. Reporting his findings in the October issue of Journal of Family Issues, sociologist Jay Teachman at Western Washington University noted that the distinction only becomes apparent when women earn 60 percent or more of the family's income. After that marker, couples became 38 percent more likely to divorce over the 25-year period. Researchers were "surprised about the strength of the effect," Teachman said...

Why might the divorce rate have been significantly higher when wives earn 60% or more of the family income? There are no doubt various reasons, but some suggestions were made in research released in 2007. This research found that when women became the primary breadwinner husbands did less "emotion work" in the marriage, and that more traditional arrangements led to more "expressive" forms of marriage in general:
women who are in marriages that are characterized by more traditional gender beliefs and practices are happier with the emotion work they receive and do receive more such emotion work from their husbands.

...adherence to traditional beliefs and practices regarding gender seems to be tied not only to global marital happiness but also - surprisingly enough - to expressive patterns of marriage ...

9 comments:

  1. It could also be a testament to the fact that traditional conceptions of marriage and gender roles are still pervasive in our culture despite everything. The sense that the husband, who is traditionally the breadwinner, is not pulling his weight could be a source of tension.

    I am studying law at university (purely for the money) and I have tended to refrain from taking an interest in girls who are also looking to pursue a career in law. Perhaps this is why.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Researchers were "surprised about the strength of the effect," Teachman said...
    -
    That ought to give rise to collective self-examination. What is wrong with your models, and your commitment to them, that such a strong result is so surprising?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Read this post on a far-left blog, and see what you think:

    http://anti-racistcanada.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/know-your-place-misogyny-and-racism.html

    It's about the link between a favourable view of traditional family structures and a favourable view of tradtional ethnic nationalism. People who espouse these are referred to by the derogatory term 'boneheads'. That's how much respect the left shows for those who oppose their agenda.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Because, of course, in an anti-racist Marxist utopia white people wouldn't be permitted to reproduce at all.

    ReplyDelete
  5. "I am studying law at university (purely for the money) and I have tended to refrain from taking an interest in girls who are also looking to pursue a career in law. Perhaps this is why."

    Back in the day when I was studying law, Rule Number One among us was that "you don't get into relationships with female law students." They were always the most high maintenance girls, incredibly egotistical, and very hostile in their attitudes.

    I'm curious: where are you studying. I did my undergrad in Sydney, Australia.

    ReplyDelete
  6. They don't bother to try and explain why "emotion work", whatever that is, goes down when the wife makes more money than he does. I'm sure it has nothing to do with my experience that such women (and their friends) frequently express open contempt for their men, making "emotion work" unsafe for those men.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Men with higher earning wives are also much more likely to cheat on their partners.

    Let's face it - the overwhemling majority of men just don't feel comfortable being stay-at-home dads and these progressive 'herbs' should be more honest with themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anon, I'm doing my undergrad at University of Queensland.

    I'm a Queenslander, true maroon, born and bred, etc, etc.

    ReplyDelete