Money Makes Cursed Women Divorce Their Husbands

Women who out-earn their husbands are apparently more likely to divorce them. Maybe it’s because they have the economic independence to do so…but maybe it’s because they’re cursed!

The Post makes the latter assumption in its coverage of the study. Their headline: “Women’s divorce ‘cur$e’: Success spells splitsville.” And yes, they went there:

There’s plenty of examples of divorced celebrity couples with women in the driver’s seat: Oscar-winner Sandra Bullock and her cheating biker ex, Jesse James, who complained her career kept her away too much

The actual study, conducted by sociologists at Western Washington University, found that couples in which the woman made 60% or more of the total income were 38% more likely to split up in a given year. Study author Jay Teachman noted that a woman’s ability to support herself after a divorce likely contributes to these numbers, but, “There’s some wounded egos, too. The man is going to expect he’ll make more money, and the wife is going to expect she’s not.” However, he also cautions that he only studied people who married between 1979 and 2002, and he “would like to do it again in 10 years with younger women, because it’s a different generation.” Until then, high-earning ladies, consider yourselves cur$ed.

Women’s Divorce ‘Cur$e’ [NY Post, via Newser]