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In the Wall Street Journal, my onetime sparring partner Kay Hymowitz argues that the discussion over the meltdown of white, middle-class marriage
comes at a time when white, middle class marriages are particularly
likely to last; the divorce rate for college-educated women is
remarkably low. And despite the fact that her piece includes a
sarcastic shoutout to Double X, I think she
is mostly right. For all the talk of desperately bored empty nesters,
marital satisfaction generally suffers when kids come along and rises
when kids leave. The median age of first divorce for women is 29, not
59; it seems that the arrival of children is more likely to challenge a
marriage than their sudden disappearance.
Oddly, Hymowitz also insists that marriage is “suffering a
full-scale crisis of consumer confidence” among this same subgroup, and
reminds us that “in any crisis, people tend to panic.” In defense of
this claim she cites the Sandra Tsing Loh's piece in the Atlantic, our discussion,
John Edwards, and Mark Sanford. (The Gosselins, surely more powerful
cultural actors than any of the former, go unmentioned.) So which is
it? Is the institution of marriage safe and stable or ... (Read more at DoubleX.com.)
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