According to a study published this Monday, September 30 by the National Institute of Demographic Studies, “couples in which the share of income provided by the woman is greater than 55% are more unstable than others”.
Heterosexual couples in which the woman earns more money than the man are more fragile than others. This is the conclusion of a study presented this Monday, September 30 by the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED). According to this work, carried out from a sample bringing together data from nearly a million couples, representative of the French population, between January 2011 and January 2017, couples where the woman contributes more heavily to the joint income than her partner masculine incur “higher risk” of separation.
“Couples in which the share of income contributed by the woman is greater than 55% are significantly more unstable than other couples,” according to the study, carried out for the first time in France. These in fact present a “risk of separation” higher by 11% to 40% compared to couples with equal income. “And the risk of separation increases with the woman’s share of total income” of the couple, specify the authors.
“Deviating from norms is difficult to accept”
Ce “increased risk” separation is observed among married couples as well as in civil partnerships or simply living together and is more significant among the lowest incomes. However, the balance between income does not have the same influence depending on the type of couple. In marriage, the man’s preponderant contribution is “stabilizer”, while income equality fulfills this role among couples “in cohabitation”. The influence of income is less important among civil partnership couples.
Among the couples studied, the most important income remains provided by the man in 49.3% of cases, 20.5% have equal income and in 13.7% the woman is the main contributor. The couple’s income is provided entirely by the woman in 2% of couples and by the man in 14.5% of cases. The study points “the emergence of a new egalitarian balance” towards which it evolves “the profile of the stable couple”, even if the risk of separation remains “always lower among couples” where man is the main provider of income. The authors nevertheless believe that “the higher rate of separation which persists among couples where the woman is the main income earner clearly indicates that deviating from the norms is difficult to accept even in countries like France where female employment is high and supported by family policies”.
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