It turns out that whether or not a man is employed can play a rather large role in whether or not his marriage will end in divorce.
According to a recent state university study, men who are unemployed are more likely to have their marriage end in divorce. And while some of these divorces are initiated by the wife, many men who are unemployed also decide to file for divorce, which points to the fact that there are still cultural beliefs in society that the man is supposed to be the primary breadwinner in a family.
The study looked at more than 3,600 couples who had participated in three waves of the National Survey of Families and Households at times between 1987 and 2002.
From the data, researchers were able to determine that while a woman’s employment status holds no bearing on whether or not her husband will decide to leave her, a husband being unemployed can be a real deal breaker for not only the wife, but also the husband.
In addition, it was also determined that a man is more likely to leave a happy marriage based on the fact that he is not working, which researchers wrote suggests that a marriage where the husband is unemployed “does not look like what (men) think a marriage is supposed to.”
And while a woman’s employment does not have an effect on the chances of her husband leaving her, an employed woman is more likely than an unemployed woman to leave an unhappy marriage. This finding suggests that women tend to view their own work statuses more in terms of financial security that would allow them to leave a marriage if need be.
Source: PsychCentral, “Male Unemployment Increases Risk of Divorce,” Rick Nauert, 22 June 2011
