BC Council for Families

A new study issued this month by Washington DC thinktank the Pew Research Centre finds that there's been a role reversal when it comes to men, women and the economics of marriage. In The New Economics of Marriage: The Rise of Wives, the authors compare data on marriages and income levels from 1970 and 2007. Their findings? The economic benefits associated with marriage are now greater for men than women:

• 22% of women out-earned their spouses in 2007, compared to only 4% in 1970.
• currently, 28% of women have more education than their spouse, while in 1970 those figures were reversed – 28% of men had higher education levels than their wives.

While on average, women still earn less than men, the rise in women’s earning power may be creating change in the dynamics of modern marriage. “There is evidence from other research that women’s growing economic clout gives them more power within marriage,” write the study’s authors.

As BC’s Father Involvement Network coordinator David Sheftel points out, “With women becoming a more equal financial contributor to marriages, men need to be open to becoming a more equal partner in housework and parenting. They need to see their partner’s job as important as their own, but also be ready to spend the time and energy necessary to be a positive parent raising their children in a healthy home.”