The role of women has change significantly over the past decades as the rate of women’s employment continues to grow. While there are numerous effects caused by this change one of the most controversial demographic issues has been the structure of families in the United States. There have been a number of studies published that show there is a direct correlation between the increasing rate of women’s employment and the increasing rates of divorce and separation occurring in the United States. People only began playing attention to the issue in the late 1970s, 1980s, therefore little “long-run” data to support the relationship between the role of women in the work force and divorce rates. Although cultural factors play a significant role in the strength of marriages most studies look only at socioeconomic aspects on marital stability. Nevertheless, studies do show that women who do work are more likely to divorce or separate from their husbands than those who do not.
Becker, in 1991, came up with a model that predicts that when a woman begins receiving her own source of income, making her no longer dependent upon her husband, there is more of an incentive for her to remain married declines, thus giving strength to those in bad marriages to get out. Becker was assuming that the foremost benefit of marriage occurs from the interdependence of men and women, which is a direct result from the specialized gender roles of both men and women; women stay at home and men go into the work force. “Women in the past lacked independent means of support were often trapped in bad marriages; as opportunities for female wage-labor expanded, women were increasingly able to escape and live on their own. Thus, the rising economic power of women undermined patriarchal authority and destabilized marriage.” (Ruggles, 455) After Becker’s study was published, other economists began to look at the problem from the side, maybe as the number of divorces and separations increased it was a necessary condition that there be a rise economic opportunities for women. Nonetheless, through these studies there is evidence that the rising levels of women involvement and the increasing levels of women income that has significant effects on marriage stability. (Ruggles, 455)
Most studies use longitudinal data to show the relationship between workingwomen and the divorce rate, however there are two limitations: first, the necessary data needed is only available since the 1970s and, second, the completed studies are unable to capture the changing labor market opportunities for women entirely. Despite the two limitations, there is sufficient data that can be used to run such regressions. When looking specifically at whites, the percentage of divorce/separation among whites has increased between 1880 and 1990 by some 500%. Whereas among blacks the percentage was a little more than double of that of the whites in every year. (Ruggles, 457)
Over the past several decades the rate of women’s participation in the work force has been steadily growing, in turn this growth has had a great impact on the American business world at large. On average the participation of women in the labor-market has risen from 13% to 42% from 1940 to 1970. During this time period there was an increase in divorce and separation of a 1.6 percentage-point. (Ruggles, 462) As a woman gains more experience in the workforce and expand upon her skill level her wages are likely to rise as a result. (Smith, 10) Consequently, as both wages and the level of time/dedication demanded upon the women in her field of work increases marriages are often affected negatively, and offset the traditional patterns of marriage in the United States.
Between the years of 1920 and 1980, the wages of women grew some 20% faster than men’s; such rapid growth in the deceasing of the wage gap between men and women is considerably. In 1986 the average woman was making only 65% of a man’s average salary, while the younger women were making closer to 86% of a man’s average wage. This increase goes to show that the woman’s place in the labor force was and will continue to improve from generation to generation. (Smith, 14-16) As women were/are taking great leap towards equality in the workforce, studies have shown that the odds that a working woman’s marriage would end in divorce increases 5% for every $5000 her income increases, on the other hand, there is little to no effect when the husband’s income increases. (Tzeng, 345)
As employment opportunities continue to expand for women the option to get out of bad marriages and support themselves continues to increase as well. Although married women are usually less likely to be in the workforce if their spouse earns a relatively high wage, it should be pointed out that “married women who work have a stronger sense of autonomy, identity, personal growth, and self-confidence than housewives.” (Tzeng, 331) Often times, when both partners do work competition can be a problem, which has a serious affect on a marriage. And, furthermore, if the wife does earn a higher wage than the husband the chance for marital instability increases than if the wife’s wage is lower than that of the husbands.
Both the incomes of the husband and the wife measure economic welfare of the marriage, however there are the potential economic standings that either the wife and/or husband might enjoy if the marriage were to dissolve. Thus, the discrepancies in their incomes and economic contributions can very often enhance or erode a marriage. Traditionally, when the large wage gap favors the husband the division of labor is still stable and the wife is often still economically dependent upon the husband. However, if both husband and wife make equal wages they may expect each other to make equal contributions to the marriage, but differences in contributions may dissolve the marriage. (Tzang, 336)
Conventionally, women are expected to give up their jobs at some point during marriage to begin to start having a family and have children. However as opportunities within the workforce continue to expand many choose to continuing to work over staying at home and raising their children. As the wife chooses to devote more of her time to her work and less to her family and home life the marriage often becomes more and more instable. “A 5-week increase in annual weeks worked reduces the odds of marital dissolution by about 2%” and “a 5-week reduction in the gap between husband’s and wife’s weeks worked increases the odds of marital disruption by about 3%.” (Tzeng, 345) And, along the same lines, there is negative relationship between the number of weeks worked by both the husband and wife and the stability of marriage; less time is spent at home and with one another.
Feminization of poverty is directly affected as the opportunities for women in the work forces continue to expand. For many years, poverty had been gender-neutral, in 1940 over 90% of all families included both husband and wife, thus the sex differential used when measuring levels of poverty was small. However, by the 1980 the situation had changed dramatically, almost one out of seven white families was headed by a single mother, this is over a 60% increase since 1960. The number is even higher for black families, now a single mother headed most every one out of four families. These statistics that were once sex-neutral were now becoming more feminized as a result of the number of female-headed households increases. “Matters became progressively worse, until by 1980, 62 percent of poor adults were women” (Smith, 20) and the number only continues to increase and the number of single mothers continues to grow.
Assessing the effects of increase job opportunities for women in the workforce on the stability of families may be important it is also important to look at the changing role of men in the United States. Oppenhemier published a study in 1994 arguing that the declining labor opportunities for men have been overlooked. She brings to attention that since the 1960s, the level of participation in the labor-force by young men has declined considerably, more specifically among black men. (Ruggles, 455) And, while the market-labor participation rate has increase dramatically for both black and white women since 1880, males have experience the opposite effect. White men’s participating in the workforce has declined by about 5%, while for blacks the decline has been by about 17%. And, although part of this can be attributed to age of retirement being earlier than before the main factor is the decline of young age employment. (Ruggles, 459) This decline in the participation rate for males has had a serious effect on the rates on divorce and separation in the United States. “It is possible, however, that declining market-labor participation of black men since 1970 is the single most important source of rising martial instability for blacks.” (Ruggles, 465)
It is important to distinguish between the socioeconomic positions of white and black families. While black families have a lower male participation rate females have higher market-labor participation rates than their white counterparts, and has been recorded as being so in the census every years since 1940. And, therefore there is a dramatic difference across racial lines on the effects of the labor force on the family. “Low male opportunity among blacks has also been the key factor in recent years, followed closely by low male participation.” (Ruggles, 464) Thus the decline in male participation since 1970 has made a considerable contribution. (Ruggles, 463)
Black families are affected much differently than white families by the socio-economic factors, which in turn affect the stability of marriage much differently for black families than white families. In general, whites receive more formal school than blacks and while black women often tend to be slightly more educated than black males, white males tend to be more educated the white females. (Tzeng, 343) Another great difference between the two races is the interpersonal relations within marriages. Black couples tend to see one another more as equals and receive similar wages while there is a large inequality in white couples’ wages and work experience. “For the 1978-1987 period, the gap remains about $10,000 for whites, but only $6000 for blacks.” (Tzeng, 341) Never before has such a small differential between the husband’s and wife’s incomes ever occurred in the average white family. However, white marriages appear to be more vulnerable to the effect of socio-economics of women in the labor force in comparison to blacks. On the other hand, black families are greatly affected by the increased rate women participation as well as the decline in male participation in the workforce.
Besides the socio-economic issues discussed here there are many other factors that have a major effect of the stability of marriages in the United States. The husband and wife’s age at the time of marriage can play a significant role. Age has an inverse relationship to the odds of marital trouble; the odds are reduced by about 1 to 5% with each additional year of husband and wife’s age at the time of marriage. Marriages are 15% less likely to end in divorce or separation if there are children than childless marriages. However, marriages are 50% more likely to end if children are present beforehand. And, lastly, “the odds of dissolution in such marriages are about 17 to 25% greater than for marriages in which both spouses grew up with both mother and father.” (Tzeng, 345) Cultural factor, such as these, often play an important role and should not be overlooked when discussing the socio-economic impacts on martial instability.
In conclusion, throughout the twentieth century, this trend of marital dissolution has increased considerably, due mainly because of the introduction of women into the labor force during the depression and World War II. In 1867 it was reported that only about 5% of marriages ended in divorce, but in the 1967 the divorce rate had increased to over 50%. (Ruggles, 455) And, it is clear that the role of women in the labor force has changed greatly over the past several decades. As married women continue to take advantage of the various work opportunities that are available families are experiencing increased levels of divorce and separation – as the status of women in society continues to increase so does the tendencies for marriages to end in divorces, sadly enough. If the advancement of women in the work force is truly positively correlated to divorce and separation that other social and cultural changes are necessary to ensure marital stability for the future.