According to new research from Pilar Gonalons-Pons of the University of Pennsylvania and Allison Dunatchik of the University of South Carolina, opposite-sex couples — particularly those with children — face a higher risk of separation when women earn more than their male partners.
For their study, the authors analyzed data from five prior surveys, resulting in a combined dataset of nearly 545,000 different-sex couples from 29 high-income countries between 2004 and 2020. According to their findings, couples where women make more money than their male partners were 36 percent more likely to separate than male-breadwinner couples. Equal earners were also slightly more likely to separate than male-breadwinner couples.
Notably, differences in countries’ gender norms and wage gaps had no impact on this pattern. Instead, the authors found an association between parenthood and separation risk. Among parents, female-breadwinner couples are 49 percent more likely than male-breadwinner couples to separate. Among childless couples, female-breadwinner couples are 23 percent more likely to separate.
“Policies that help mitigate work–family conflicts and economic hardships can attenuate stressors that deteriorate family relationships, while policies protecting individuals from the economic consequences of divorce are key to ensuring that anyone in an unhappy couple can leave,” the authors conclude. “We encourage future research to leverage new datasets and qualitative studies to develop and test alternative potential explanations for the enduring association between women’s advantage and separation.”
Dr. Gonalons-Pons is the Alber-Klingelfhofer Presidential Associate Professor and undergraduate chair in the department of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is affiliated with the university’s Population Studies Center, the gender and sexuality studies program, and the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics. Her research examines how work, families, and public policies structure economic inequalities. Dr. Gonalons-Pons holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Barcelona in Spain, a master’s degree in international migration from the University of Deusto in Spain, and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
An assistant professor of sociology at the University of South Carolina, Dr. Dunatchik specializes in gender, family, social stratification, and social demography. She is a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., where she majored in political science. Dr. Dunatchik received a master’s degree in public administration from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.