Marriage is strengthened when women enter the workforce, says stephanie coontz |
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Here's a quiz: which women are more likely to have positive attitudes toward marriage?
A. Women in Japan and South Korea, where traditional gender roles have not been disrupted by a powerful feminist movement.
B. British and American women, who have higher expectations of independence and equality and more options to support themselves outside marriage.
Answer: B.
The women's movement is often blamed for setting men and women against each other and destabilising marriage. Women who adopt egalitarian ideas, pursue higher education, or establish careers, we are told, are less likely to attract a husband and more likely to divorce.
There is no doubt that marriages were more stable when wives were legally required to |
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| ‘For centuries, women with independent means and minds were less likely to marry |
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obey their husbands and lacked the economic or educational resources to leave an unsatisfactory union.
For centuries, women with independent means and minds were less likely to marry, and if they did marry, more likely to divorce, than women with lower levels of education and earnings. There is even a sociological theory, called "the independence effect," to explain this. Women, according to this theory, look for mates who are good providers, while men seek good housekeepers. Therefore, a woman who can support herself has less incentive to marry, and a man is less likely to find her attractive.
The "independence effect" seemed to explain the surge of divorce and the harsh criticisms of marriage that appeared in Western Europe and North America during the 1970s and 1980s, as women streamed into the workforce and the feminist movement raised their discontent with the traditional division of labour at home.
Today, however, research suggests that the expansion of women's equality seems to  |
