Women with Advanced Business, Law, and Medical Degrees More Likely to Get Divorced

How about this? Seems women with some high-power, advanced degrees are more likely to get divorced. The details:

Women with M.B.A.s are twice as likely to get divorced or separated as their male counterparts. The picture isn't much rosier for women with law or medical degrees.

That is the finding in a soon-to-be-published study by Washington & Lee University School of Law Prof. Robin Fretwell Wilson. Using a National Science Foundation survey of more than 100,000 professionals, Prof. Wilson analyzed data on newly minted professionals in business, law and medicine. Her conclusion: For women, a professional degree is often hazardous to marital health.

How does this impact personal finance? Well, getting divorced, on average, significantly, negatively impacts net worth. For many couples it's the expense of divorce and loss of the economies of scale in spending that impacts them the most. But for the professional women noted above there could be another big hit -- alimony. Yep, it's becoming much more common for men to receive alimony payments. Here's one example:

Take one fellow. Though he earned $500,000 a year, his wife earned $1.5 million. When they moved to California to advance her career, he had to take a pay cut.

When their marriage dissolved, he demanded and won a sizable settlement. It was the only way, he explained to The Journal, he could maintain the standard of living he'd become accustomed to.

What's fair is fair. If a man makes a big salary and gets divorced, he often has to pay alimony. So if a woman makes a big salary and she gets divorced, then she should have to pay too, right?

Still, it's a big hit for them all if a divorce occurs. From a financial standpoint, it pays to work out your differences if at all possible.

Comments

[Seth]

With less than a week till my family law exam, I will say that there are no winners in divorce. Well, except for the lawyers maybe?

[Matt]

It wouldn't surprise me if one factor contributing to the higher divorce rate of women with advanced degrees is that they can better afford the financial hit from a divorce.

Alimony is meant to be compensation when one person sacrifices their career development for the sake of their spouse's career development. It's not so much to maintain a certain standard of living, but larger settlements are possible if it's "just go away!" money. In that case, it's a lot like golden parachutes for under-performing CEOs.

Matt -

Or "sacrifices" their own career development to raise kids at home yourself where you can instill your values in them and teach them in the way they should grow, giving them love.

Career Development is over-rated (for both Men and Women). Especially if you have a family. I bet studies would show that men with advanced degrees or very demanding jobs (which most of these degrees tend to incur) and don't make their priorities right. It's great to provide for your family, but it's a heck of a lot better to be there for them.

[Lily]

Maybe women with advanced degrees and higher earning potential get divorced more often than other women not because "a professional degree is hazardous to marital health," but because they can afford to walk away. After all, how many women stay in crappy marriages because they don't know how they can provide for themselves or their children?

Moreover, while divorces may have a negative impact on the net worth of these professional women, their net worths are probably still higher for having these advanced degrees.

Maybe it pays to work on a marriage from a financial point of view. But if the marriage can't be saved, money shouldn't be a reason to stay on the sinking ship.

[Dave]

I think this is just one side of the story. I've also read studies indicating that women who have less than average education, and women who are recent immigrants who don't speak English are more likely to be victims of abuse in the home. Women face both the good and the bad when it comes to empowerment, just as men do.

From my observations, it's because these marriages aren't marriages, but financial partnerships. We are often talking about spouses who -- while no doubt once had a spark of romance and attraction -- rarely see each other, routinely have a nanny raising their kids and if they talk probably talk business.

[Traciatim]

Didn't I just read recently on another blog that there were studies showing that Men usually marry below their financial equal (IE, men statistically marry women who make less). I think they were trying to show that the men did this in order to retain control of the relationship or something.

I wonder if we will be seeing women doing the same thing now.

[Ben E.]

This comment will seem radical to some people, but that women with higher education having a high divorce rate is unsurprising. I think when women leave the role of "care giver" and "homemaker" they tend to infringe upon the husband's role of "provider". That's not how things are supposed to work. While there is nothing inherently wrong with possessing an advanced degree as a woman, when the degree is flexed to establish a secondary income at the expense of the family, then there is a higher probability of marital breakdown. Simply put: career oriented women increase the risk of divorce because she abnegates her calling of nurturing.