As the seemingly perennial debate over what is destroying American families has ebbed and flowed over the past few decades, one of the less ridiculous positions espoused has been that women’s increasing role in the labor market has created an additional source of marital stress. Simply put, the benefits of having two-incomes has often been seen to come with a significant cost to the family. On the positive-side (if you will pardon the apparent oxymoron), some sociologists and social commentators have concluded that women participating in the labor market are more likely to have the means to choose divorce over staying in an unhappy or abusive marriage. However, the source for the additional marital stress is difficult to ignore. No matter how fulfilling the career, working is… well…work.

Further, to be a working wife or mom generally means to have two “careers.” In 1997, Arlie Hochschild reported in her book The Second Shift that most women who worked full time still reported doing most of the housework. Many others indicated that the cost of child-care accounted for most of their earnings, further reducing any perceived benefit. Although economists such as Anne Crittendon have recently pointed out the high financial cost of a mother staying at home, there is a general consensus that more and more women in the 21^st century are choosing to stay at home once they have children.

Of course, the financial pressures related to the decision to stay-at-home should not be ignored. A powerful relationship exists between money and she who gets to decide whether or not to work outside of the home. In 2004, Stephanie Coontz of the non-profit, non-partisan Council on Contemporary Families reported that mothers who stay home are concentrated in the top 5% of household incomes and the bottom 25%. According to the US Census, 20% of stay-at-home moms live in households earning $100,000 or more, while 2.3% are in households earning less than $10,000.

A good deal of research has focused on the relation between women working outside of the home and divorce. Some have concluded that women’s participation in the workforce leads to higher rates of divorce, while others have concluded that higher rates of divorce have lead to more women in the workforce. A few researchers have gone further and demonstrated that women working leads to more divorce AND vice versa. However, up until recently, no study had looked at how much time spent at home by husband impacts divorce. Does the extent to which a husband focuses his efforts on career and work outside of the home have a negative impact on marital success?

To be fair, a lot of people disagree with the basic premise that a woman’s career comes at somem de facto “cost” to the marriage. At the very least, an important interaction between work and need should probably be established. Based on research on marital happiness and satisfaction such as that conducted by Benjamin Karney recently in Florida, we can see that couples where both husband and wife must work in order to provide for basic needs are at a disadvantage in terms of the amount of time that can be spent having positive family interactions. However, they do not appear to be at any disadvantage in regards to their opinions and values related to marriage. This may be in contrast to more affluent couples who choose to pursue work or career interestsf in lieu of focusing on efforts within the home (and namely what family economists refer to as “household production“). In either case, given that the number one cause for divorce is typically found to be infidelity, it would seem reasonable to assume that couples who spend a great deal of time apart working are more likely to exhibit poor marital outcomes. So the question arises: Do the amount of hours that men and women spend working outside of the home have a negative impact on the probability of divorce?

As of today, the answer to this question would appear to be “no.” In a recent analysis of data from about 12,000 participants of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) between 1985-1992, a group of economists has reported in this month’s volume of the Journal of Family Economic Issues that the amount of time allocated to “home production” by husbands is not significantly related to the likelihood of divorce. Adding incentive to stay at work for men, a significant positive relationship between marital success (i.e., not getting divorced in this context) and the amount of time husbands spent at work.

So much for the “stay at home dad” movement I was hoping to foment. I will look forward to reviewing the successful parenting literature emphasizing the important (and non-financial) role of “Daddy” which I will now be searching for fervently!

Additional Reading:

R. O. Weagley, M. Chan and J. Yan (2007). Married Couples’ Time Allocation Decisions and Marital Stability, J Fam Econ Issues

Spitze, G., & South, S. J. (1985). Women’s employment, time expenditure, and divorce. Journal of Family Issues, 6(3), 307-329.

Greene, W. H., & Quester, A. O. (1982). Divorce risk and wives’ labor supply behavior. Social Science Quarterly, 63(1), 16-27.