—Because they want to be independent financially.
—Because they would rather hire somebody to do the housework than to do it themselves.
—Because they want an independent career.
Virtually all studies made show that the happiest married women are those who do not work after marriage. In the study by Dr. G. V. Hamilton, A Research in Marriage, only forty-five per cent of the women working after marriage had a “satisfactory” to “very satisfactory” marriage compared to some fifty-five per cent of the women not working after marriage who were happy in marriage.
Once a wife starts working, she may resolve to stop at the end of a specific period, but by the time the deadline arrives she usually finds a reason why she should continue a little longer. Frequently she and her husband have bought things like an automobile that prevent them from attaining enough stability financially to permit her to stop working. She continues to work, thereby putting off having children and perhaps never has them.
But now let’s take up the greater—and less understood—dangers involved in the types of work the groom does. Many wives today think they are dissatisfied with their husbands when actually they are dissatisfied with his working habits or his job.
For example, some jobs carry more social prestige than others. Here are some twenty-four occupations rated by college students (1940) on their prestige, with those with the highest prestige at the top and those with the least prestige at the bottom:
| 1. | Physician | 13. | Farmer (owner) |
| 2. | Clergyman | 14. | Insurance agent |
| 3. | Lawyer | 15. | Salesman |
| 4. | College professor | 16. | Bookkeeper |
| 5. | Manufacturer | 17. | Machinist |
| 6. | Banker | 18. | Carpenter |
| 7. | Artist or author | 19. | Barber |
| 8. | Man of leisure | 20. | Factory operative |
| 9. | Engineer (college trained) | 21. | Blacksmith |
| 10. | Factory superintendent | 22. | Soldier |
| 11. | School teacher | 23. | Truck driver |
| 12. | Storekeeper | 24. | Ditch digger |
Richard O. Lang, as a graduate student at the University of Chicago, made a study of marriage happiness based upon ratings made by acquaintances of more than seventeen thousand married couples. On the basis of his findings here is how fifty different occupations rated on the descending scale of marital happiness. The happiest are at the top and the least happy are at the bottom. Here is the approximate order: