Seminar

Does economic independence destabilize marriage? We investigated the impact of women’s economic independence in terms of (i) any labor income, (ii) wife’s share of household income, and (iii) wife’s income relative to other women, on divorce risks in Sweden 1947-2015. We used longitudinal data on couples (about 50,000 first marriages) in the SEDD database, exploring unique information on women’s income drawn from tax records over nearly 70 years when married women’s labor force participation increased and Sweden developed as a welfare state. Women’s economic independence in terms of any income predicted divorce until 1990. Until 1990, additional divorce risks were highest among women who were the primary breadwinners (i.e., contributed 66% or more to household income) but after 1990, wives’ income share was not an important predictor of divorce. High-earning women were more likely to divorce than women who earned less until 1990, after which divorce risks converged for high- and medium-earning women. Low-earning women consistently had the lowest divorce risks. In sum, economic independence used to predict divorce, when gender division of labor was traditional, and both married women’s labor force participation and divorce were rare. Results indicate that propositions regarding economic independence in terms of income and divorce must be reconsidered when both are common and gendered expectations of spouses are different than they used to be when social theories of gains to marriage were developed.