Working hard hints at failing marriage

Working hard hints at failing marriage
Women facing break-up do extra hours
David Smith
If a woman suddenly starts working longer hours, it could be a telltale sign that her marriage is on the rocks, according to a study by economists.

Women whose marriages are collapsing will clock up an average of 283 hours a year — or six hours per working week — more than those who are in stable, happy relationships.

While one explanation could be that they prefer to spend time with their workmates rather than with an estranged husband, the research suggests the motivation is mainly financial.

Women facing divorce not only want to boost their income ahead of the break-up but also want to ensure they are employable once they are reliant on their own earning power. By working longer, perhaps moving from part-time to full-time work, they build up skills and are less marginalised in the job market.

Men respond differently. Faced with a marriage break-up they do not throw themselves into work. If anything, they cut down slightly on their hours.

The research paper, The Effect of Divorce Risk on the Labour Supply of Married Couples, will be presented this week by Kerry Papps, a Cornell University economist, at the Royal Economic Society annual conference at Warwick University.

The research findings were derived by comparing women’s working hours with their marital status. If a woman was married one year but divorced a year or two later, it was assumed that she would have seen the break-up coming.

That was then compared with her working hours to produce a significant statistical match. Marriage experts say the findings make sense for a variety of reasons. “If someone is unhappy they may throw themselves into work, and the socialising that goes with it, as a way of distracting them from being unhappy,” said Denise Knowles, a counsellor with Relate, the UK’s largest provider of relationship counselling and sex therapy.

“I don’t think this always happens at a conscious level. Things may be unpleasant or unhappy at home so they work harder because there is a sense of stability at work. They may not feel valued at home but they do at work.”

Papps’s paper also includes so-called “hazard” rates for divorce — the time after marriage when the risk of break-up is greatest. For both men and women in their first marriages the risk of break-up peaks after four to five years. Women who remarry are much less likely to get divorced.

Divorce rates in Britain have fallen in recent years. In 2005 there were 155,052 divorces, a drop of 7% from the 167,138 recorded in 2004. The peak year was 1993, when more than 180,000 were recorded.

The sharp increase in the number of divorces from the 1960s to the 1990s coincided with a big rise in women working. Between the early 1970s and the mid1990s the number of women in work rose from 9m to 12m. It is now more than 13m.

Do you agree?

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posted by Robert Heard at 8:15 AM