Report: Economically, Men Benefit More from Marriage Than Women

A new report says that men are now benefiting from marriage more than women. According to the Pew Research Center report women have surpassed men in both education and earnings over the last 40 years.

“From an economic perspective, these trends have contributed to a gender role reversal in the gains from marriage,” says Richard Fry and D’Vera Cohn. “In the past, when relatively few wives worked, marriage enhanced the economic status of women more than that of men. In recent decades, however, the economic gains associated with marriage have been greater for men.”

The report states that the growth in male economic benefits is derived from tremendous growth in the number of women in the workforce. This year is significant since, for the first time, women will outnumber men in the workplace. What is also interesting is that women who choose not have children earn pay on par with their male counterparts.

What is problematic, however, is that corporate America has still not fully embraced the idea of supporting the growth of families in the workplace. Most differentials in pay between men and women occur when women decide to leave the workplace for a significant period of time as a result of child birth. The fact that our government does not encourage corporations to provide paid maternity leave causes women to lose their professional standing during any prolonged absence.

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