Working Wives Lower Divorce Chances

Full-time work for wives decreases the likelihood of divorce but does not improve marital happiness, Penn State researchers say.

Marital unhappiness frequently drives wives into the workplace, said Dr. Robert Schoen, a sociology professor. Whether it be unhappy wives, husbands or both, unhappiness can play an important role in wives taking on full-time employment.

Schoen's study looked at people over time. For couples that reported unhappiness at the first time point, the likelihood that the wife would be in the full-time labor force was significantly greater than it was for couples reporting happiness at that time.

"Marital quality predicts wives' subsequent labor force participation," said Schoen, a research associate of the Population Research Institute. "Wives who are unhappy in their marriages at Time 1 are more likely to enter or remain in the full-time labor force between Times 1 and 2 than are wives in marriages where both spouses are happy at Time 1.

"Interestingly, wives' full-time employment is elevated even in marriages in which the wife is happy and the husband is not," he added.

Views on wives' full-time employment often suggest that wives entering the full-time work force are preparing for divorce, but the researchers found that wives' full-time employment tends to have the opposite effect.

"We see no consequences of wives' full-time employment for marital happiness, but wives' full-time employment decreases the risk of subsequent marital disruption," Schoen explained.

"We do not know the motives that lead unhappy wives to enter or remain in full-time employment, but it appears that they are not simply preparing for a marital dissolution," he said.

"Unhappy couples are more likely to separate, but if they stay together, the wife's employment stabilizes the relationship," he said.

The researchers also found that having a child reduced the likelihood of wives' employment by 55 percent. Women with one child were also less likely to work full-time than wives with two or more children and wives with no children.

I suspect that in these unhappy couples, the working husband does not respect his wife's role as homemaker. When she goes to work, her self-esteem probably improves because she has been conditioned to think of her self-worth in purely economic and career terms. The husband's opinion of her probably increses as well.

It's also possible that a second income resolves most financial issues, which is a big source of conflict in marriages.

Or perhaps a career provides an avenue for domineering women to exercise control over others, when she can't do so at home.

Another possibility that comes to mind is that co-workers provide emotional support and needed relationships that a homemaker is not getting from her family.

Maybe it's none of those. Maybe a combination of some. I dunno.

I guess moms want to stay home with the first baby, but by the time number 2 comes along they want to get away! We'll have our second child in a couple of weeks - I wonder if my wife will want to go to work then?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.