Smarter, richer wives for US men

Changing trend means women now have more say in household

NEW YORK: It is obvious that more women are wearing the pants in American families these days.

What is more surprising is they are bringing home more of the bread and butter as well.

In fact, a new look at census data in the United States showed that men now have more reason to get married than women do.

The study by the Pew Research Centre revealed that American women outpaced men in both education and earnings growth over the past 40 years.

That has contributed to a dramatic change in family dynamics.

As wives have become smarter and seen their pay packets grow faster than their husbands, they have earned a greater say in household matters as well.

Few modern husbands have a problem with that, the study showed.

In 1970, men usually married women with less education, and fewer wives worked. Since then, there has been what the report called a 'gender role reversal in the gains from marriage'.

'What has radically changed is that marriage now is a better deal for men,' said Mr Richard Fry, co-author of the report published by the Pew Research Centre.

'Now, when men marry, often their spouse works quite a bit. Often she is better educated than the guy.'

In 1970, unmarried men had a higher economic status than married guys, he said, but no longer.

Indeed, US Census Bureau statistics revealed that the present generation of married couples in the 30 to 44 age group is the first in US history to include more women than men with college degrees.

The report found that in more than half of these married couples, spouses have nearly equal levels of education. The wife is better educated in 28 per cent of marriages, while in 19 per cent, the husband has more education.

Men still earn more - 78 per cent make at least as much as or more than their wives. But that, too, is changing.

The percentage of women whose income has outpaced their husband's has more than quadrupled, jumping from just 4 per cent in 1970 to 22 per cent now.

'We have seen a historical shift in the marriage bargain since the mid-20th century,' said Dr Andrew Cherlin, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University. 'The old bargain was that the husband earned the money and the wife took care of the home. The new bargain is that both work, and they pool their incomes.'

The economic recession has accelerated the trend. The report cited labour statistics showing men lost three- quarters of jobs for prime working-age individuals in 2008.

Women have not lost jobs at the same rate and 'are shouldering more economic responsibilities for their families than ever before', said sociologist Kathleen Gerson, author of The Unfinished Revolution: How A New Generation Is Reshaping Family, Work, And Gender In America.

'The economic crisis has made something visible that has been building for a long time,' she said.

Men still out-earn women, but the gap is narrowing. In 2007, full-year women workers had median earnings of about US$33,000 (S$46,000), which was 71 per cent of men's median earnings of about US$46,000. Back in 1970, women's earnings were just 52 per cent of men's.

At one time, men might have been embarrassed to be out-earned by their spouses, Dr Cherlin said, but now more and more husbands are pleased to have the income a wife brings in.

'As women have brought more money into the marriage, their authority and decision-making power has grown,' said Dr Cherlin, author of The Marriage-Go-Round: The State Of Marriage And The Family In America Today. 'But it is not that women are calling the shots. It is that husbands and wives are sharing the decision-making power.'

The Pew report found that unmarried women in 2007 had higher household incomes than their 1970 counterparts at each level of education, while unmarried men without post-secondary education lost ground because their real earnings decreased, and they did not have a wife's wages to offset that decline.

Unmarried men with college degrees made income gains of 15 per cent, but were outpaced by the 28 per cent gains of unmarried women with degrees.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, WASHINGTON POST

Source: Straits Times, 20 Jan 2010.