The XX Factor: What women really think.

The Price of Power

Also appropos of prominent women and the men who love them, or leave them, or both: The Wall Street Journal had a revealing piece this week about how more men not only are taking alimony from their higher-earning ex-wives but are willing to admit it. Exhibit A is a former soap opera star who is not embarrassed to say he gets $9,000 a month from the TV producer he was married to. Also featured are men who argue that they've moved for their wives' jobs, dialed back their hours for the sake of the kids, and made all those other concessions that women have gotten pretty used to. The ex-wives who are quoted tend to resent the payments; the former wife of the former soap star said she used to spit on the check before she mailed it. (She does not say why she stopped.) But perhaps the most striking detail was a figure from the U.S. Labor Department showing that 33 percent of wives earn more than their mates, a percentage that has been rising steadily. I have to confess, one-third is a higher figure than I would have guessed. It reminds us that we need to recalibrate our thinking: Guys whose wives are more powerful, or more public, or simply better-paid are not outliers—they are part of the norm.

Less upbeat, the WSJ had a related story on a study by a Washington & Lee University law school professor who found that women MBAs are more likely to be divorced than their male counterparts. The prof, Robin Fretwell Wilson, posits that high-powered women (who tend to marry equally driven men) aren't able to give their hubbies the attention and TLC these men may still expect them to bring home, along with their paychecks. A somewhat dreary reminder that it's not always women who expect to have it all.