In this episode, we compare and contrast the wives of 200 years ago and today. The difference between a wife today and a wife 100 years ago is pretty striking. Women in the 1800s and 1900s were much more housewifey and involved in the farming and providing for their families. In the 1950s, women were marrying off as virgins. Today, women are marrying off their virgins at a higher rate than they did in the 50s. Why is this the case?
00:02:43.020What's really interesting is since the 1950s, the percentage of men that are marrying as virgins is actually higher than it was in the 50s.
00:02:49.120So what happened with the birth control pill is that it basically took out all the, it just streamlined all the sex to the guys that the women wanted to do it with the whole time and without consequence.
00:03:00.820But when you're looking at the marriage statistics, okay, there are two predictors that stand above all else for, three predictors actually, that stand above all else for poor outcome to the marriage.
00:03:12.780Like an unsuccessful, bad breakup, poor marriage, unhappiness.
00:03:15.900Number one, getting married before the societal standard age.
00:03:18.760So if you're married at like 18, you're going to fail, it's going to suck, don't do it.
00:03:21.540Number two, if a woman brings a child into the relationship, into the marriage, that's not the man's child, is an extremely high predictor for the woman's unhappiness in that marriage.
00:03:30.820Not the man's unhappiness, the woman's own unhappiness, which inevitably leads to divorce because what, 80% of marriages are, divorces are initiated by women.
00:03:38.400And the third factor, and this is really interesting, the third factor today that's the highest correlated statistically with a poor outcome to the marriage is the woman has more than 10 sexual partners.
00:03:48.020So what happens is the biggest drop for a woman's unhappiness in the marriage is after the woman has one sexual partner, you see the biggest drop in the happiness and the potential positive outcome in the marriage.
00:03:56.780And then like between two and five, it kind of like hovers, you know, where it was at two.
00:04:02.080And then between like six and nine, it kind of gets a little bit worse, but at 10 or more, the drop is significant and massive.
00:04:09.580And this is just measuring, you know, longitudinal studies of the happiness and the outcomes of the marriage.