Not exactly. The 50’s are a transitional time. I see a lot of couples split in the 50’s..
What men want is sex. Yeah they want other things but women can provide that one thing exclusively. Sex gives women leverage over men, especially if the man tends to be monogamous. The problem comes when the woman decides to end sex. She loses the leverage. She starts to see him “disengage”. Previously, he said “I better cooperate or she might cut me off”. Now he says “She cut me off, why bother listening to her?”.
Her reasoning is “He should do what I want even though he doesn’t want to do it because he loves me”. His riposte is “She should have sex with me even though she doesn’t want to do it because she loves me”.
That is the impasse. Remember, all the woman offers him is sex. Everything else he can get for himself these days. My experience is that a lot of men are actually forsaking monogamous relationships in favor of “hanging out with the guys”.
You can flip the roles here BTW. There are a lot of porn widows out there.
Yep. Many husbands are primarily a means to an end for the wife - to get the children she so yearned for, and then doted over. He went along with it as the kids grew, hoping her physical interest in him would return someday. The empty nest very often forces the reality check that ends the marriage. Then, if healthy and decent and self-sufficient, he’ll learn he is a quite desirable commodity, and then, yippi ki yay!