Unhappy marriages that end in divorce are not uncommon, and new studies presented at the American Sociological Association meeting reveal that women may have a hand at it.
“In the study, women accounted for the breakups of 69 percent of the marriages that ended in divorce,” said a Men’s Health article. “They also reported much lower levels of marital bliss than men did.”
You might that thank the study suggests that women are generally unhappy when it comes to relationships, but that isn’t the case at all.
In fact, women are just as likely to give up dating or cohabiting relationships as men, and aren’t less satisfied in them.
The problem, according to the study’s author Michael Rosenfeld, Ph.D., an associate professor of sociology at Stanford University, seems specific to marriage, and may partly be because women aren’t as well-served by the institution as men are.
“Men enjoy some crucial privileges within marriage that makes them, on average, more satisfied with marriage than their wives,” he says.
This is best illustrated at home, once the workday is over.
Although both men and women in dual-income families spend more or less the same same amount of time on total work a week (guys raked in more time at the office, but their wives spending more time on housework and childcare), men enjoy more than 20 percent more leisure time a week than their wives do.
“That’s not to say that your wife is going to mail you the papers just because you’re watching TV while she’s folding the clothes,” The men’s Health report said.
“There are clearly many factors involved in divorces—like financial stress, discrepancies in life goals, and infidelity—some of which may be out of your control.”
Divorce may not be an option in certain parts of the world, but the point still stands: husbands should regularly check in on how their wives are feeling.
They have to make sure that they are a team when it comes to their marriage, and should tackle its issues together.
“Scheduling a monthly review of what’s on each of your plates will give you both the opportunity to air any frustrations you may have with your tasks—before they end up festering further.”
READ: 7 signs your marriage is falling apart
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