Couples with young children are less likely to breakup when the women earn at least 20 percent more than their male partners, a latest study shows.
The study suggests that families have 60 percent less chances of splitting up where the mother is earning more than the father and children are aged between 4 and 7 compared to those where the father earns most.
The results also showed that the effect was even more significant among the married couples. It stated that risk of divorce was 80 percent less if women earned 20 percent more than men.
For the study, the researchers examined 4,000 British couples with young children. They found that the current results contradicted the fact that higher-earning women were more likely to be divorced or separated.
"Sociological and economic theories have long predicted that women's increased economic independence would undermine the institution of marriage.
"Previous studies of married couples in the UK provided evidence that women's higher earnings increased the risk of divorce," said Dr. Shireen Kanji of Leicester University, according to the Daily Mail. "We found that influential theories that a woman's higher earnings elevate the risk of divorce are unfounded among contemporary parents in the UK."
But, the study also found that after childbirth the number of high-earning women also drop. The proportion of mothers who earn 20 percent more than fathers dropped from 6 percent to 3.8 percent by the time a child turned five. The study further stated that the number of women who earned the same as their husbands or boyfriends dipped from 11 percent to 4.3 percent during the first five years of having a baby.
"Our findings show that equal earning, and a mother being a main earner, are not destabilizing influences on relationships, even at an intense time of childcare responsibilities," Kanji said.
