Real men marry rich women

We can pay women fairly without destroying the institution of marriage, says stephanie coontz

The US census has just reported that in at least five major American cities, the majority of women in their twenties now earn more than men of the same age group. You might think people would have seen this coming. In most of Western Europe and North America, females have been a majority of university students for the past 10 years. In the United States, they now comprise almost half the students in traditionally male fields such as law, business, and medicine.

But the news that women in their twenties are out-earning their male peers has generated hundreds of news reports and blogs in both the US and Britain. Many people warn that this change will have dire consequences for the romantic lives and marriage prospects of women. Young women describe relationships that sour when the boyfriend discovers that she earns more.

For more than 150 years, we’ve been told to play dumb and seem dependent to catch a man

They report hiding their earnings and downplaying professional degrees on dates.

It's no wonder women worry. For more than 150 years, we've been told to play dumb and seem dependent if we want to catch a man. Prior to the mid-19th century, this was not an issue. Men and women worked together on farms and in family businesses, and women's activities sometimes accounted for the bulk of family subsistence. But men were OK with that because male authority was enforced by law and religion.

As institutionalised male dominance eroded, the rise of wage labour gave men a new source of masculine pride: now they were the family breadwinners. Immediately, experts began to advise women that if they challenged this masculine role, they would destroy their chance of finding marital bliss.

In 1905, a prominent Canadian doctor, whose advice books were published throughout the English-speaking world, explained that women who were successful at work acquired a "self-assertive, independent character, which renders it