Looking for a job? Looking to get married?
Hopefully, you’re planning to do the former before the latter.
In conjunction with ForbesWoman, YourTango surveyed a number of women and found that 75% wouldn’t marry a man who was unemployed. Similarly, 65% said they’d keep the nuptials at bay if they were the ones jobless.
This is understandable; the only thing worse than not having enough money to support yourself is not having enough money to support someone else. And though 91% of the singles surveyed said they would marry for love over money, getting hitched isn’t a one-variable equation.
(Fortunately, YourTango also identified the 15 Best and Worst Careers for Love. Makes me feel a little better about the low pay in publishing.)
The results also include feedback on some other provocative questions, like whether the respondent would marry a man who made less than she did and the importance of a partner’s occupational prestige. Among the most interesting/horrifying statistics: “55 percent would give up their career to take care of kids if their partner asked them to do so; only 28 percent would ask the same of their partner.”
Either that’s a glaring example of gender inequality, or YourTango surveyed a surprising amount of altruists.
—Photo zoetnet/Flickr
Yes, I saw a similar result from a study in done in Spain. Its good to be getting this stuff out in the open. Here is also some horrifying news – “In Warren Farrell’s book “Why Men Earn More” (The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap – and What Women Can Do About It), Farrell argues that “the power of money is not in its earning but in its spending.” American women control over 80% of discretionary spending, resulting in a “massive transfer of wealth from men to women.” and about female breadwinner.. *When it comes to controlling money, there… Read more »
Man, I think those statistics are misleading. Wives make most spending decisions because they do most of the shopping. Most women I know would love it if their husbands took a bigger role in managing the household. But try getting a guy to spend an afternoon looking at furniture or buying school clothes for the kids. It’s not like women are preventing men from making spending decisions. Many husbands opt out or basically delegate decisions to their wives. Also, I would argue that’s not a transfer of wealth from men to women (in families where the man is the sole… Read more »
I agree with you, Stacey. In my relationship, purchases are made by me on things we jointly need largely because I’m the person that researches the benefits/drawbacks of the item, I’m the person who has slightly more time to think laterally about what we really need, etc. If it were left up to my boyfriend we’d basically have a house full of stuff that falls apart or breaks after two years. The furniture I entered the relationship with is still in good condition due to the fact that I spent more on good quality stuff. There’s very little that my… Read more »