She Wins, They Lose

In keeping with this week's theme of relationships, The Headcase travels to Deutschland to look at how income disparity can strain marriages to the breaking point. A study of German couples published last fall (pdf here) found that an imbalance of earnings led to a substantially higher risk of divorce—but only when the woman made more than the man.

The "traditional labor division" within married couples has been that one spouse, typically the male, earns money while the other, typically female, performs the housework. The study's authors wanted to see if this antiquated standard holds true in these Modern Times:

Nowadays, it is quite common for married women to work in the labor market. Thus, the traditional labor division with a working husband and a housewife should be less prevalent and consequently less relevant for marital stability.

Turns out some traditions die hard.

The researchers analyzed 1,128 German relationships from 1984 to 2007 (representing 8,758 total couple-years), 204 of which ended in divorce or separation. When income and housework burdens were shared equally, the risk of divorce didn't rise compared to couples with a traditional labor division. Marital stability was "considerably diminished," however, when the wife was the main earner and the husband did most of the housework.

When wives shouldered a "double burden" of marital effort—meaning their combined housework and income made up 60% or more of the total proportion—couples were at a "substantially higher risk of divorce." Yet when the husband felt this "double burden," marital stability was actually enhanced.

After weighing all the variables and qualifying factors, the authors interpret their results starkly:

Frustration of one or both spouses that the wife is the main earner and not the husband as traditionally expected seems to be a better explanation for our findings.

Data this depressing deserve a bit of levity. So let's hope that even if German couples fight over who takes home the bratwurst, they can at least agree on Norm MacDonald's old theory: Germans love David Hasselhoff. (Go to the 2:49 mark.)

(HT: Barker)