More Wives Who Outearn Their Husbands, Now Less Likely to Divorce
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Here's your Money Briefing for Thursday, May 18th. I'm J.R. Whalen for The Wall Street Journal. Marriages in which women earn more than their husbands has grown substantially. And unlike 50 years ago, those marriages are less likely to end in divorce.
It used to be that single family could subsist off of one breadwinner. It was ideal that one person would work and one person would stay at home. Now, both partners really have to be maximizing their income potential.
We'll talk to WSJ personal finance reporter Julia Carpenter about this cultural shift and whether it's helping to close the gender pay gap. That's after the break.
How common are marriages where wives out-earn their husbands today?
The share of marriages with women making more money has grown significantly over the past 50 years. WSJ personal finance reporter Julia Carpenter joins us to discuss how it's affecting marriages. So, Julia, what sparked this trend of women making the same or more than men in their marriage?
We've seen this slow growth. Women are attending college more. Women are gaining advanced degrees. And as a result, they're better positioned to land these higher-paying jobs.
In your reporting, you cite research showing that opposite-sex married couples in the late 1960s and 70s were 70% more likely to divorce when wives earned the same or slightly more than their husbands, compared with couples where the husband earned more. How has that changed?
We've seen a pretty dramatic reversal of that trend. So the 80s, we saw the number drop slightly. And then for couples married in the 90s, the divorce rate for those with female breadwinners was 4% higher than male breadwinners. So a pretty significant drop.
Why was the divorce rate in that income scenario so much higher?
So researchers point to a couple different things. There's social factors, of course, you know, greater acceptance of women in the workplace, greater advancement of women in the workplace, husbands feeling less threatened by women earning more. But there's also economic factors. You know, it used to be that single family could subsist off of one breadwinner. It was ideal that one person would work and one person would stay at home. Now, both partners really have to be maximizing their income potential in order for these families to reach these milestones that were once much more easily accessible.
Yeah, it's never been cheap to live. But how have rising household expenses played a role here?
It's pretty significant for parents. I think that's where most people can see their household balance sheets change most dramatically. Childcare costs really vary depending on where you live. But as of the most recent numbers, daycare can cost anywhere from $8,000 a year to nearly $20,000 a year. So that's a significant cost for many parents.
You mentioned a moment ago that men have felt threatened by their wives making more than them. What's the story behind that?
It's a pretty traditional gender role story. We see that men feel threatened if they are not the sole provider. They feel that that is somehow a statement about their role in the marriage, their masculinity, their ability to provide. But I was speaking with one couple and they both work in the library world. She earns more than him. She's a tribal archivist. And she said that she was a little nervous actually to tell him when she first exceeded him in salary because we had had all of this messaging about how men feel in these relationships. She didn't want to challenge the great relationship they had. And what he said I thought was so telling and really sort of indicative of how many men feel now. He said, more money for her is more money for us.
More money for me is more money for us. So he saw it instead as a statement about himself as a partner, more of a celebration for their household.
Now, looking at women specifically, they've held prestigious, highly paid positions for decades. But what has changed for them in particular over time in terms of marriage?
When you look at research that examines women in the C-suite, historically, we've seen that those women are actually likelier to be divorced.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:49
2
How common are marriages where wives out-earn their husbands today?
0:49–4:19
3
What historical shift explains the rise in wives out-earning husbands?
4:19–5:34
4
Why did higher-earning wives used to face higher divorce rates?
5:34–6:17
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from WSJ Your Money Briefing
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