News Flash: Men are Marrying Wealthier Women!!!!

Article

In the New York Times article “More Men Marrying Wealthier Women” Sam Roberts discusses the recent findings from a nonpartisan research center. The Pew Research Center, which examines events or trends that shape America and the world, has recently released an analysis of census data that concluded a role reversal between men and women. Paul Fucito, a spokesmen for the Pew Research, stated “ ‘Men now are increasingly likely to marry wives with more education and income than they have, and the reverse is true for women.’” The study examined thirty to forty-four year old Americans because this group encompasses the first generation in which women have obtained more college degrees compared to men. The traditional image of an American housewife is now changing due to society’s acceptance of powerful women and men not being afraid to marry someone who is more educated. Despite, these improvements there is still progress to be made.

Since the 1970’s the increase in incomes has increased more for women. Stephanie Coontz, a professor and research director, explained that men have needed marriage for their physical and mental well-being, but it has now become essential to their economic health, as well. Intelligent women, like Dr. Rajalla Prewitt, are having a hard time “finding someone where there’s a meeting of the minds, where we can have the same goals and values.” Another woman believes it is harder for more educated women to find a husband because men consider these types of women as high-maintenance, since they do not need help taking care of themselves. In addition, Zielinski, who the story enters on, was told by her best friend, a man, “what man is going to want you?”

In 1970 20% of women were married to men who had less education, however, this statistic rose to 28% in 2007, further verifying men are marrying women with more education. This shift is a major change in the traditional gender roles, in which women were told that “only through marriage and motherhood” would they have a happy life (Feminism In Our Time 48). Women were supposed to live a fulfilled life, since they had a husband, children, and a house. However, many women suffered from the “problem that has no name,” according to Betty Frieden in The Feminine Mystique. This problem is simply that they do not feel alive or fail to have anything to look forward to. Instead of going to “college to get a husband,” (Feminism In Our Time 51) women now want to earn an education in order to have a job that would allow them to focus their time and energy. The article cited Professor Coontz, who discussed a similar notion of women attending college to marry a man who made more but was less educated in the mid-20th century.

Professor Coontz believes that even if men become more dependent on their wives, it is unlikely to see similar resentment against women that happened after the return of servicemen from WWII or during the Great Depression. Since it has been acceptable in today’s society for women to hold higher paying jobs and jobs with more prestige, I would agree with Professor Coontz. I do not think even if a woman’s husband got fired or laid off that there would be a nation-wide strategy to get men back to work as in the past. I believe that our society now accepts the fact that women are just as intelligent as men and are capable of succeeding in any occupation.

If this new role reversal holds steady for time to come, then our society’s norm of patriarchy may began to fall apart. Patriarchy, which is a male-dominated society, has been the norm in our society ever since women have been encouraged to stay at home and become a perfect housewife to their bread-winning husband. Allan G. Johnson, a male feminist, discusses patriarchy and how women given in to it because it is the “path of least resistance.” He states that patriarchy is about “masculine protectiveness” and the “primary importance of a husband’s career and the secondary status of a wife’s” (Johnson 39). Both of these statements are what traditionally have been hammered into children’s minds as they have grown up.

Despite the revelations that our society is slowly changing away from a patriarchy, there are still men out there who consider marrying a woman with more money or education is wrong because it puts them in an inferior role in the family. This inferiority that men feel tends to be more common when the man has a blue collar job or is raised in a setting where the family places high value on male dominance in the income category. Since our society in general is shifting away from this male superiority, more men will be comfortable with what they earn and this inferiority will not be as big of an issue. The way a child, whether male or female, is brought up will dramatically influence how they view this idea of who should be the “breadwinner.”

School is another place where children learn at a young age the typical jobs and responsibilities each gender is supposed to have. If a child has a teacher that stresses the female characteristics of “caring, tenderness, and vulnerability” and male “anger, rage, and toughness” (Johnson 39) then young girls will think they are supposed to be the care takers of the family and not allowed to have their own career. Moreover, boys in high school tend to pick on their female counterparts who do well in school, further promoting women to not do their best in school. However, this is changing every year as boys became to appreciate intellectual girls.

Furthermore, Johnson says patriarchy is “more than a collection of individuals” (Johnson 30), since it is something that we all participate in. Thus, in order for more change to occur in gender roles, individuals and society as a whole must find little ways to resist. This can be accomplished by the media displaying more successful women of all ages and races, who are also a part of a family, in their news and television shows. If shows begin to cast women in a “breadwinner” role, then it can become ingrained into the way our society thinks and acts towards women who hold power. When one compares television shows from today to those from a couple of decades ago, the shift in gender roles is apparent. For example, I Love Lucy compared to Commander in Chief, where women are portrayed as a housewife and woman President, respectively.

In addition to Johnson and Frieden, Frye also shows her resentment with patriarchy. She uses a birdcage to describe women in our society, in which a “network of forces and barriers…which conspire to the immobilization, reduction, and molding of women and the lives we live.” This quote relates to this article because decades ago there were barriers that caused women to feel inferior to men. Whenever they tried to move around them, they were looked down upon as not being feminine. However, as more of these restrictions were reduced/removed, women will advance even more in our society and more men will not be afraid of a more educated partner. This trend of men marrying wealthier women is just the beginning.

Maybe one day we will see equal pay for men and women!!!!
(Currently a woman makes $0.78 for every $1.00 a man makes.) From: Gender Wage Gap