Women, Careers, and Relationships

[Bruinrab]

Women M.B.A.s More Likely To Divorce Than Men
By ANITA RAGHAVAN

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.

"It's like the Virginia Slims ad -- we've come so far -- but, man, we haven't come so far," says Prof. Wilson, herself a divorcée. "In a lot of ways women aren't getting the same deal as men." Unlike men, she says, "women can't have it all because there is a social stigma to having or being a stay-at-home spouse."

Much has been written about the growing "opt-out revolution" in which female professionals, buffeted by crosscurrents at work and at home, are exiting the workplace in droves. And the topic of female success and marital status has been explored by others. In 2001, for instance, economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett collected data on high-achieving women, defined as being both high-earners and "super-credentialed" -- with graduate degrees, for example -- and found that the more women earned, the more likely they were to be single and without children.

What Prof. Wilson's study highlights is the large number of professionals -- particularly women -- who remain in the workplace but "opt out" of having families.

Women with M.B.A.s described themselves as divorced or separated more often than women with only bachelor's degrees (12% of female M.B.A.s compared with 11% of women with only bachelor's degrees) and more than twice as often as men with M.B.A.s (5% of whom reported being divorced or separated), according to Prof. Wilson's study. The study will be published next week by the Witherspoon Institute as a chapter in a book to which Prof. Wilson contributed, "Rethinking Business Management."

According to Prof. Wilson's study, women with law or medical degrees divorce less often than those with only bachelor's degrees, but are still more likely to divorce or separate than their male counterparts (10% of women with law degrees and 9% of women with medical degrees, compared with 7% of male lawyers and 5.1% of male doctors).

Prof. Wilson also found that female professionals abstain from marriage at double and sometimes nearly triple the rate of men.

Ms. Hewlett believes more is at play than just a prevailing image that high-earning women are a threat to men. Suggesting that highly successful women are attracted to similarly successful men, she put forward the idea that such women "can't summon up the TLC and support that high-earning men need."

Her advice? Well-educated, highly compensated women should be targeting particularly loving and supportive men.

[Salika]

Stigma shmigma, my law degree ain't gonna stop me from being a stay at home mom!

[PhDGirl]

Yeah, this isn't really news. Obviously it's anecdotal, but I have certainly noticed that as you move up, the women are more likely to be divorced and/or never married. But, that's not true of men because as they move up, they're more likely to have stay at home wives versus wives who work outside the home (particularly in high-powered or high-prestige professions). The US could stand to have more family-friendly policies, but a problem is that people see those policies as benefiting women, versus benefiting families as a whole. There's also a lack of meaningful part-time work for women, so some opt to stay home when really, they wouldn't mind keeping a hand in their former workplaces.

[bluey]

Salika said

Stigma shmigma, my law degree ain't gonna stop me from being a stay at home mom!

So what is the point of getting a law degree?



Okay, before anybody attacks me, that is not me talking. Someone I know was in a dilemma, where her husband-to-be asked to her to stop getting a medical degree, because if she was going to be a stay at home Mom, what would be the point of studying so many years, and all that education going to a waste? The person wasn't exactly against education as such, but particularly medicine or law, which require/[d] so much time both while studying it and working in that field.

Somehow, somewhere, I thought there was a point in it.

But of course, it also depends on how interested or devoted you are, and there are benefits/advantages of getting a law or medical degree. Especially if say, you are in a position where you have to work after getting married and so on and so forth.

[HijabiPrincezz]

bluey said

So what is the point of getting a law degree?



Okay, before anybody attacks me, that is not me talking. Someone I know was in a dilemma, where her husband-to-be asked to her to stop getting a medical degree, because if she was going to be a stay at home Mom, what would be the point of studying so many years, and all that education going to a waste? The person wasn't exactly against education as such, but particularly medicine or law, which require/[d] so much time both while studying it and working in that field.

Somehow, somewhere, I thought there was a point in it.

But of course, it also depends on how interested or devoted you are, and there are benefits/advantages of getting a law or medical degree. Especially if say, you are in a position where you have to work after getting married and so on and so forth.

personal satisfaction maybe? and plus, you never know when financially unstable times may come that you might need to pop out that law/medical/M.B.A/bachelors degree. and usually, those that i know that went as far as law school or med school, and plan to have kids and be stay at home moms, usually work part time at least just to keep themselves still able to perform their profession, yet they give time to their home as well. it depends on the person, really.

[Jamroll]

Well if its for personal satisfaction, why don't us guys start doing courses like Ancient Roman pottery making and the History of Gangster Films in the 20th century?

[Haramoobobi]

An early Muslim scholar, of the Maliki school of law, named Ibn al-HÆjj, otherwise a strict critic of the over-liberal behaviour of the women in Cairo, wrote:

If a woman demands her right to religious education from her husband and brings the issue before a judge, she is justified in demanding this right because it is her right that either her husband should teach her or allow her to go elsewhere to acquire education. The judge must compel the husband to fulfil her demand in the same way that he would in the matter of her worldly rights, since her rights in matters of religion are most essential and important.

According to the Prophet*:

It is the duty of every Muslim (male or female) to seek knowledge.

Hadith: Bukhari?

[HijabiPrincezz]

Jamroll said

Well if its for personal satisfaction, why don't us guys start doing courses like Ancient Roman pottery making and the History of Gangster Films in the 20th century?

im getting mine because psychology rocks.

[Jamroll]

HijabiPrincezz said

im getting mine because psychology rocks.

That's nice but who's going to do the ironing?

[wheelworks]

HijabiPrincezz said

im getting mine because psychology rocks.

I feel sorry for your Future husband and all the mind games you're gonna play on him

[Hanbali]

Haramoobobi said

An early Muslim scholar, of the Maliki school of law, named Ibn al-HÆjj, otherwise a strict critic of the over-liberal behaviour of the women in Cairo, wrote:

If a woman demands her right to religious education from her husband and brings the issue before a judge, she is justified in demanding this right because it is her right that either her husband should teach her or allow her to go elsewhere to acquire education. The judge must compel the husband to fulfil her demand in the same way that he would in the matter of her worldly rights, since her rights in matters of religion are most essential and important.

According to the Prophet*:

It is the duty of every Muslim (male or female) to seek knowledge.

Hadith: Bukhari?

This seems to be talking only about religious knowledge, not secular knowledge. So this is probably only relevant if your wife wants to be an aalimah, not if she wants to be a lawyer or something.

[HijabiPrincezz]

i was just sayign it cause there are some people i knwo that the only reason theyre getting a medical degree is to satisfy a childhood dream or something of that sort or to feel a sense of achievement but they dont want to work later on.... if thats what they want, they kudos to them, i guess. to each their own. but whos to know that after marriage, having kids, etc etc, they might change their mind? and i guess its better to be prepared with a degree in your hand, rather than change ur mind later about wanting to go work and not have anything and work a dinky job at like walmart or something. meh.

[Salika]

bluey said

So what is the point of getting a law degree?



Okay, before anybody attacks me, that is not me talking. Someone I know was in a dilemma, where her husband-to-be asked to her to stop getting a medical degree, because if she was going to be a stay at home Mom, what would be the point of studying so many years, and all that education going to a waste? The person wasn't exactly against education as such, but particularly medicine or law, which require/[d] so much time both while studying it and working in that field.

Somehow, somewhere, I thought there was a point in it.

But of course, it also depends on how interested or devoted you are, and there are benefits/advantages of getting a law or medical degree. Especially if say, you are in a position where you have to work after getting married and so on and so forth.

No, it's a valid point, but like HijabiPrincezz mentioned, it's a form of security. What if God forbid something happens to the husband or his job and you have to contribute to the family?

Besides, I really don't plan on staying a full time house wife/mom, it's really when the kids are young. I do hope to work at least part time at some point. I also want to help people.

Just as a note there, there is a HUGE difference between a law degree and a medicine degree. Law is only three years and if you want to get the phd equivilent (LLM), it's only one additional year. Medicine on the other hand is four years school, four years residency, and maybe even on top of that more specialization depending on the field.

[bluey]

Haramoobobi said

An early Muslim scholar, of the Maliki school of law, named Ibn al-HÆjj, otherwise a strict critic of the over-liberal behaviour of the women in Cairo, wrote:

If a woman demands her right to religious education from her husband and brings the issue before a judge, she is justified in demanding this right because it is her right that either her husband should teach her or allow her to go elsewhere to acquire education. The judge must compel the husband to fulfil her demand in the same way that he would in the matter of her worldly rights, since her rights in matters of religion are most essential and important.

According to the Prophet*:

It is the duty of every Muslim (male or female) to seek knowledge.

Hadith: Bukhari?

The key word there being religious education. I don't think it applies to worldly education [For example, going to get a degree, etc]. Correct me if I'm wrong.

hijabiprincess said

it depends on the person, really.

Yep, I agree. And how you handle the situation.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for Women empowering themselves with education and support those who seek an education, both the knowledge of the World and the deen. However, those were some key points that I'd come across and which, to a certain extent did make sense so I brought them up.

hijabiprincezz said

i was just sayign it cause there are some people i knwo that the only reason theyre getting a medical degree is to satisfy a childhood dream or something of that sort or to feel a sense of achievement but they dont want to work later on

Dudeee, I'd never study so much just to satisfy a childhood dream, especially if I knew I wasn't going to put it into practice. I know friends who are doing the medical degree, and it's killing them.

But that's just [lazy] me.

Actually, my Parents wanted me to do it as well [Which Parent doesn't?] But it isn't my thing.

But all power to those who do, maybe one day they'll have need of it.

[HijabiPrincezz]

Jamroll said

That's nice but who's going to do the ironing?

shared responsibilty.....