Study: Your Husband’s Job is a Major Factor in How Likely You Are to Get Divorced


iStockphoto.com/shironosov

iStockphoto.com/shironosov

If you couldn’t already tell, this happens to be the week of interesting marriage-related studiesearlier we filled you in on the latest advice for maintaining a steamy sex life and why some guests decide to buy off-registry wedding gifts, and now we’re discussing how your hubby’s employment status can influence your likelihood of divorce.

According to a new study published in the American Sociological Review, Harvard sociologist Alexandra Achen Killewald found that when it comes to factors that increase the possibility of divorce, “for contemporary couples, the biggest determinant is whether the husband is working full-time.”

Killewald studied over 6,300 married couples between 1968 and 2013 (of that batch 1,684 of them divorced or separated during that time frame) and found that for those who were married after 1975—when married women’s participation in the labor force increased—”wives’ paid or unpaid labor had little effect on her chance of divorce, but the husband’s breadwinning mattered a lot.”

What it comes down to, Killewald says, is the “symbolic content” that work carries for many people and the expectations that come with being a good wife or husband. When these roles are fulfilled to a person’s expectations, marriages are more stable.

Read more about the study here.

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