While recent research shows that marriage carries benefits for both men and women, nearly all the research shows that marriage is more beneficial to men than to women. Married men enjoy better health and longer life expectancy than unmarried men, even if the marriage is unhappy. For women, however, the picture is a little different. Women in happy marriages and women who are alone both tend to be healthier and have longer life expectancies than do women in unhappy marriages.

Earlier research suggested that even women in happy marriages did not benefit as much from marriage as did men. More recent studies use broader criteria for well-being and indicate that happily married women benefit nearly as much from marriage as do men.

In terms of physical health, women who choose to be stay at home moms (i.e. not only do they want to, but the man earns enough so that it does not cause significant financial stress for the family) tend to be much healthier than any other group of women. I would be curious to know whether or not the men fare as well in this circumstance as do other married men. I don't recall seeing any reports of studies on this in the literature on marriage and family.

I think women tend to experience relationship, including the marital relationship, from a much more nuanced perspective than do men. And therefore, women are more likely to feel much more ambivalent, or, at least, ambiguous.

I don't know this to be true, but in good marriages, I suspect women are more likely to feel satisfied, and men are more likely to feel happy.

We now know that nature and nurture work hand-in-hand to influence brain development beginning at birth. The testosterone bathed brain or the estrogen bathed brain, combined with the socialization process that begins at delivery (pink for girls, blue for boys) is what is probably primarily responsible for the difference.

Janie (the unromantic.)