This comment was by Charles on the post “6 Reasons Why You (And Every Other Guy) Should Consider Getting Married.”
——
“There does almost seem to be a ‘push’ to have men get married. That men won’t be able to function as good, well rounded men unless they are married. I’ve read similar articles and even articles that try to make the case that men need women more than women need men. That while married men were healthier, took better care of themselves, less likely to engage in risky behavior, etc., there was no real difference found between women that are single and women that are married. In fact some studies even seemed to suggest that single women actually lived longer and reported being happier than married women. This basically makes it as though men need women, but women don’t necessarily need men. That women can live a single life a lot easier, a lot better than a single man.”
——
Photo: Christopher/Flickr
The “studies” you cite probably are garbage. Ignoring men who have divorced (and once were married) puts marriage for men in an entirely different light than if they were considered in the data set of “married men”.
Likewise, confusing correlation with causality is a common gross error of sociological studies. Maybe wealthier, healthier men are the ones that get married in the first place, rather than marriage improving their lives after the wedding.
“some studies even seemed to suggest that single women actually lived longer and reported being happier than married women. ”
I can’t speak for “happier” but the reason single women appear to live longer than married is because they count widowed women as “single”