Depending on how you measure it, marriage has and still benefits men

A new report from Pew shows that married women have made large gains in earnings and education, sometimes out earning their husbands. Maybe it's because I have been listening to too much punk rock lately, but this quote about the report really set me off today:

"What's radically changed is that marriage now is a better deal for men," said Richard Fry, co-author of the report, published by the Pew Research Center. "Now when men marry, often their spouse works quite a bit. Often she is better-educated than the guy." In 1970, unmarried men "had a higher economic status than married guys," he said, "but no longer." (Source: Washington Post)

Apparently Mr. Fry hasn't had a chance to review work by Heidi Hartmann or Nancy Folbre, but marriage has traditionally benefited men. Stay-at-home wives/mothers don't earn a "wage" for housework and child care but these acts of emotional labor certainly benefit husbands/fathers. Or maybe Mr. Fry also forgot Arlie Hochschild's work on how working wives not only work an 8-hour day but then come home to work a "second shift" of caring for the house and children.

The amount of time fathers spend on housework and child care has increased in the last few decades, but we are still a long ways off from having balanced families where all responsibilities are equally shared. As I see it, neither wives or husbands are gaining as the average family struggles to find affordable housing, must endure long commutes to work, and face an insufficient social welfare system that does not value ALL types of families.