Whether a woman who earns more than her husband is more likely to get divorced. Aunty C, who is beautiful, elegant and running her own fashion design studio is one of my favorite people in the world. Undoubtedly, Aunty C is a career woman, being ten times busier than her husband and making ten times more money than her husband. “I want to be someone like Aunty C” is what I said most during my childhood. However, “Don't be someone like Aunty C” is what my mom said to me most recently, because aunty C divorced her husband. Why does a man want to divorce a woman as pretty as, as elegant as, as smart as Aunty C? “Having no time to attend to the piano performance of my 6-year-old cousin, missing countless family dinners and always coming home late” are all the reasons for the divorce according to Aunty C’s husband, but seriously, why did they divorce? The failure of my childhood idol’s marriage makes me seriously think whether a woman who earns more than her husband is more likely to get divorced.
A look back at history shows that women have made great strides in the fight for equality, including the right to vote and the equal opportunity in education and workplace. Women are sent to schools to be educated and are expected to earn more than before in the labor market. The reality that increasing numbers of women are primary breadwinners of family is a huge transformation compared to the tradition that husbands make money while women take care of domestic work. However, this aversion makes a big difference to the stability of marriage as the result of 2010 American Community Survey shows. Based on the survey of people who are between 25 and 39, 29 percent of decreases of marriage rates are due to women make more money than their husbands. (Lambert) The survey clearly shows that the alteration of women’s role in family not only leads to the end of Aunty C’s marriage but many of others’ as well. Thus, whether women out earning their husbands have higher chance to divorce is a significant social problem to be discussed and researched.
According to my research, women making more money than their husbands have double pressure of being breadwinner and primary house maker, their husbands are more likely to be unfaithful and they are more able to escape from unpleasant relationships. Those reasons mentioned above leads to the higher chance of divorce. But there are also people who are against those reasons.
First and foremost the double pressure of women being primary breadwinner and house maker results in divorce. People usually predict that women who earn more money than their husbands spend less time on domestic work since they are often busy and tired with their career. However, in the article “When Women Earn More Than Their Husbands” gets an exactly opposite result in the study. In fact, a woman with higher salary usually dedicates further time to domestic work. The explanation for the phenomenon is “to assuage her husband’s unease.” Therefore, it’s not hard to imagine the double pressure of being both main breadwinner and house worker in family for those women. Very possibly, the over pressure those women have leads to higher divorce rates.
However, opponents hold the opinion that women doing more housework are just because they are good at it. Genetically, women are more talented than men on domestic work. It seems like they are born to know which color of curtain fit the sheets best and what kind of ingredients can make the stew fish more delicious. Children like mommy’s cooking, the house is more organized under a hostess’s hands, and that’s the reason why women do more housework than men. So the double pressure thing cannot be the reason they divorce.
The second reason is husbands of women earning more have higher chance to be unfaithful in marriage. Men earning less than their wives seek out affairs to compensate for the emotional pain that comes with losing their