Signalling work late wife marital problems?

A new study finds that women who fear their marriage is in danger of falling apart often start working overtime as "a form of insurance".

Researchers from the London School of Economics report that, for every 1% increase in the risk of marriage breakdown, women will extend their working time by 12 minutes per week. However, they found that there was no clear evidence that men did the same thing when their relationship was in trouble.

To draw this conclusion, the researcher of Ozcan Berkay and colleagues used the legal certificate of divorce in 1996 of Ireland to calculate the level of image of the post-marriage breakdown to join the labor force. women's movements.

Women increase the amount of work outside the home when attending
The risk of marriage breakdown increases. (Photo: Alamy)

"We find that women at high risk of divorce often increase their working time significantly. However, this does not mean that women who work in society are more likely to divorce. more, rather, facing higher risk of divorce, women work harder, whether they end up breaking up with their partners or not, they work harder as a form of insurance in "Divorce often has a heavier effect on women," Ozcan stressed on the Daily Mail.

In Ireland, after lawmakers passed a divorce law, married women who did not follow any religion increased their working time outside the home by 18% compared to other religious women. Religious women are used as a comparison group in the study because they are not affected by the new divorce law. Their separation rates remained unchanged and divorce rates were almost the same.

Using the results of a survey of nearly 3,000 Irish households, Ozcan's group also found that women increasing the amount of time they took part in social work was not compensated by reducing the "housewife" time. of them or their husbands' participation more in the process of raising children.

Ozcan researcher said that before the risk of broken marriage increased, many women were willing to cling to their work because they were often financially weaker in the family and suffered from divorce. more men.

Expressing agreement with the study, Ayesha Vardag, one of Britain's leading divorce lawyers, added: "My own experience is that both men and women tend to work. overtime when they don't want to go home, this may be to avoid facing a partner when the relationship becomes tense and painful or to avoid the stress of taking care of children after a hard day's work. The corollary of this phenomenon may be that, although family life becomes less attractive, career independence and feeling of more valuable and useful self will become important. than".