Lawyer Illustrates Study Suggesting Educated Women Quitting Jobs Due to Higher-Earning Husbands
A new study by the Federal Reserve suggests some well-educated women are leaving the workforce as their husbands make more money than them.
The study has not yet been released, but Reuters has the results. “It shows that between 1993 and 2006, there was a decline in the workforce of 0.1 percent a year on average in the number of college-educated women, with similarly educated spouses,” the story says.
Stefania Albanesi, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, is one of the authors of the study. She links the jobs decline to a rise in top earners, particularly men. “In the last 20 years, wages for highly educated males increased so much that they dwarfed the family’s second income,” she tells Reuters. “The result was that, sometimes, married women exited the labor force mid-career, exactly around the time their husbands are promoted to more senior roles.”
The story uses Susan Mancini, 50, as an example. She began her career as a lawyer, but quit in 2005. The reason: Her six-digit salary was dwarfed by her husband’s seven-figure income. “At that point, it was clear that my wage had become family pocket money,” she said.
