Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Smart Women Rejoice!

A very nice myth-busting article about women, marriage, education, and child-bearing here:

In fact, educated women nationwide now have a better chance of marrying, especially at an older age, than other women. In a historic reversal of past trends - one that is good news for young girls who like to use big words - college graduates and high-earning women are now more likely to marry than women with less education and lower earnings, although they are older when they do so. Even women with PhDs no longer face a "success penalty" in their nuptial prospects. It might feel that way in their 20s, when women with advanced degrees marry at a lower rate than other women the same age. But by their 30s, women with advanced degrees catch up, marrying at a higher rate than their same-aged counterparts with less education.
Better sex, less divorce, happier marriages, more money, more egalitarian with chores and child-care.

You know, one thing that isn't talked about too much is that men get the joys of connectedness with their children that used to be exclusively the mother's domain. And that was a shame. It's better for kids to have close ties with both parents. I do think this has been aided by work-from-home and contract work situations.

By more cross-pollinating of roles, empathy increases, too. Marriage partners have a much better understanding of the stresses the other deals with now. So for right now, I'm taking on the role, (even though equally educated) of primarily parenting and keeping the house running (my husband doesn't have breasts to nurse with....a biological issue), but I also understand, in a way my mom didn't, the stresses he faces at work. We talk about cases. He's not "alone" emotionally with work stresses. Likewise, he's far more involved with the kids and housework and knows that I am sacrificing my career to be home with them and doing a lot of work that I'm not very good at, by the way. (I do not feel bad about this or regret this one bit. I feel blessed to have this choice.) And, I do work part-time with clients doing coaching and some chiropractic and working with businesses. It's fun. I can define my terms, make my schedule and not sweat it when everyone has the flu cycle through for a month.

H/T Ann Althouse