The Marriages of Equally Dependent Spouses

Marriages of equally dependent spouses (MEDS) are those in which each partner generates between 40% and 59% of the total family earnings. The author argues that such marriages will become increasingly common. Currently, about a fifth (22%) of all marriages are MEDS. This article shows that when marriages become MEDS, wives become less committed to the union although husbands do not. When marriages become MEDS, the odds of divorce also increase. Such divorces are more often at the wife's initiative than are divorces among other couples. These findings are interpreted to suggest that wives are more sensitive to the quality of their marriages than husbands are. This is because men benefit from the status of being married (i.e., being a husband) regardless of the emotional quality of their relationship. The benefits that wives derive from marriage, however, appear to depend on the quality of their unions.