Does anyone know of a study that examines the relationship between adherence to gender roles and the stability of a marriage?

I don’t know about “stability” as such…but I know that there are studies suggesting women are happier in a relationship with a more masculine partner and men are happier with a more feminine partner…....If my internet wasn’t so terribly slow at the moment I would look up the exact studies for you.

But I am sure these studies are measuring satisfaction levels, which won’t always be a good indicator at the stability of longevity of a relationship….but I guess its better than nothing

I don’t know about any studies on the subject but it makes sense that for most you practice what was taught. I did see a program on the discovery channel about marriages being successful in India and how the 3 day wedding helps in creating the bond between the couple. But I think the program was about love and not so much marriage.

I don’t doubt that in less advanced countries marriages do last longer as they once did in the US gender roles play a part and also the view that marriage is supposed to last. The people stick together because in their culture it is unthinkable for them to do otherwise regardless of how miserable they are.

The fact is that gender roles are dehumanizing putting the sex of a person above their humanity. The idea of the life long marriage may or may not be practical depending on the people involved. Likely the idea arose to assuage peoples insecurity about loosing their partner.
If we don’t face lifes situations with maturity and courage very bad things can happen to us like insane rituals that demand that we remain engaged in destructive relationships.

Something can be bad and be stable. Something can be good and unstable. It’s all on how the participants feel and can deal with each other.

While it’s not a study exactly, it sounds like you may enjoy reading the ideas that David Daida puts forth in The Way of the Superior Man. He asserts that a relationship with a person with very traditionally masculine qualities and another person with very traditionally feminine qualities makes for a dynamic relationship of mutual attraction, because differences attract. He admits freely that the roles do not need to be tied to the actual gender of the person. I found that interesting – as long as the differences are there to attract, it can be anyone having them.

That said, a lot of “stable” old-school gendered relationships often seem to be based on a power dynamic that, while very confining, might not be totally fair. (I know you’ve said in the past here that you see nothing wrong with “patriarchal” values, but some do – usually the one who isn’t the patriarch.)

Marriage was more “stable and secure” when women were completely economically dependent on their husbands. When women got birth control, tampons and a sort of economic parity, they no longer __needed__ a man to survive so they became less likely to stay in a bad marriage.

I am a total “tomboy” and my husband is a very masculine man which means that we work on the cars together and in turn he helps with the domestic chores because I hate them.

There is no one size fits all and I hate always being shoved into some niche in order to comply with a statistic.

I’ve actually read someplace (maybe I’ll look up some links later) that the less rigide gender roles are in a marriage, the happier the marriage because partners aren’t trapped and can be more flexible when life throws changes at you. I know you are using anecdotal evidence to support your claim so let me tell you about my marriage: because gender norms dont’ matter, we have been able to adjust to different work schedules, to staying at home regardless of gender, to going to school and pursuing a career regardless of gender…we decided what we do based on who is available and who’s making however much money etc at each point in our lives in terms of raising our kdis and because of this we have been able to remain strong in our bond, strong in the face of change and on equal footing with each other. So I’d say it works for us but it wouldn’t work for someone who wants rigid gender roles.

Your example of the marriage in India is a prime one in that the caste system, religious orthodox and socio-economic pressures cause Indian women to fear for their lives under these oppressive conditions. Bride burning and other forms of dowry-related violence on women is sufficient incentive to be a good wife or else!

Okay, here is something interesting (though it’s not as recent a study as I’d like) – says here that traditional men are more likely to remain single all together than egalitarian men who are more likely to cohabit and to marry..otoh it says traditional women are more likely to stay in a marriage whereas egalitarian women are less likely to have a child and more likely to leave a marriage…so egalitarianism affects the two major genders differently and that makes sense – women who are egalitarian can find other ways to succeed than through kids and marriage…men who are egalitarian can finally enter the realm of child rearing and homemaking and be happier this way…(I’ve got a bunch of methodological issues JOKiFknv4fjFXeE1rZCEeQwith this study but it’s still interesting). And here is an interestnig article that states that divorces are often initiated by women who expected a more egalitarian household given society’s movement towards equality but, in fact, found that they are expected to do a skewed share of household chores, etc. and that relatiy is not at all like the romanticized notion of marriage in their heads.

Years ago I read the results of a study that indicated yes, traditional roles promoted strong marriage, but only when each spouse was happy to fulfill those roles. I can’t remember anything else about it.

This study looked at the effect of gender role stereotypes on depression, and seemed to find that religiousity helped reduce depression among women in couples with traditional gender roles. This article tries to explain research that says that “men and women with traditional gender roles have relationships that are far from optimal—and are generally worse than those of androgynous men and women.”

So, yes. I know of a study that that examines the relationship between adherence to gender roles and the stability of a marriage? The study does not seem to support your hypothesis.

Classic case of thesis before research. I love when people have an opinion and then try to justify it with facts instead of actually using the scientific method. Fail.

@tinyfaery No, no, no. Thesis always comes before research. Although people usually do a lit review after they come up with a theory. But the research tests hypotheses. Without stating what you want to test, research is meaningless mental masturbation.

There are far too many factors to consider in a stable marriage. As mentioned above, stable is not the only answer, if the partners are miserable.

I was raised in a very Father-centric household. A funny incident right after my husband and I were married, the car ran out of gas, and Hubby wondered why I let it do that – he rode a bicycle to work. I was astonished to think that is was my job to get gas, simply because I drove the car most of the time. I really have learned a lot over the 35 years we have been married.

Another question to ask might be, “Gender roles from which tradition?” Different cultures have different traditions.

Thanks for your input, everyone.
For some of you: This question was about the relationship between gender roles and marital stability, not what makes for the optimal marriage.

@laureth I had considered that, and decided that it probably was not a terribly significant factor.

@tinyfaery
It is you who fail at using the scientific method, for you do not understand it.
The scientific method: Question—> Hypothesis—> Experiment—> Data analysis—> Conclusion.

Question: What makes a stable marriage?

Hypothesis: Maybe it’s gender role adherence? Look at Muslims and Indians and the last few generations of Americans: they exhibit strong adherences and they have/had lower-than-average divorce rates.

Experiment: Golly! It looks like I don’t have the resources to conduct an experiment! Maybe somebody else did. I’ll go ask Fluther.

Data Analysis: You Are Here. Also, some of the more useful responses contained analyses by their authors.

Conclusion: @tinyfaery jumps to conclusions too much.

Just to spite you, I’m going to GA every post that wasn’t a personal attack.

I think Martin Seligman conducted a couple of surveys.

Adherence to gender roles makes a marriage less complex (and perhaps somewhat more stable), but it also increases the risk of missed opportunities. A husband and wife have what Seligman calls individual character strengths and weaknesses. Ideally all tasks are divided into husband’s responsibility, wife’s responsibility and joint responsibilities. Adherence to gender roles often leads to a suboptimal division of responsibility. For example my wife is much better doing our income tax returns. I’m better at dealing with emotions and conflicts. And so forth.

Interestingly, there seems to be a correlation between abortion rates and stable relationships. Some of this also correlates to gender roles, too. Link goes to a book review of a book written about the findings. Link