Princess said:
Here's a statistic for you to chew on - women get paid 79 cents to the dollar that men earn. Here's another - post-divorce the woman's standard of living generally goes down while the man's goes up.
On the 79 cents to a dollar is that in general or per industry /job where did you get that figure?
A lot of woman's standards of living going down for three reasons:
1) they did not build credit prior to their marriage and even less after
2) they did not pursue a career tract
3) They married for money and let the man support them.
Their divorce puts them financially in part, where they would be if they didn't meet the man and partly below par because of the childeren. The children variable (since they already have them) they cannot control the other ones they can.
The co-dependant culture that many woman subscibe to, (cause it is a choice made by the woman not forced on them and long before the marriage), is an example of woman being their own worst enemy.
I think it is paramount for woman (or men on the rare occasion when the situation is reversed) to maintain a sense of self and independance as well as a sense of a married sense of couple....Not just in the event of a break but also for their own spirtual identity. I don't want to get too far off the subject and I realize that if a woman has a mulitude of children her career tract will be retarded for a signifigant amount of time but I think it is paramount that a woman in her preparation for married life should consider strongly working on her independant life and I further think that any husband that retards, discourages, impedes or stops this effort is asserting a very negative influence on her.
I also want to say that to be fair, men many times, push for a co-dependant female creating the reality that a woman being subservant makes her more marketable to the opposite sex. I wouldn't know how to even start to change a perception that is so predominant in the US but I do recognize it as a problem rather than an acceptable lifestyle.
Personally I would rather have an equal partner whom helps me grow as I help her as opposed to a subservant partner whom acts in accordance to my direction and automatically bends to my will.