Friedrich --

Remember how common it used to be for people to claim that, while marriage was good for men (calmed 'em down, helped 'em live longer, etc.), it wasn't good for women? This has been conventional wisdom for 30ish years.

It now turns out that this conventional wisdom is wrong. It was based on one book, Jessie Bernard's 1972 "The Future of Marriage." And a careful study of her assertions, using a wide range of Australian women, shows that marriage is as good for women as it is for men, and in exactly the same ways. Anne Manne explains all in The Age, here. Thanks to View from the Right, here, for the link.

Sample passage:

A new study for the Australian Institute of Family Studies, by sociologist David De Vaus, shows that almost none of the propositions about the toxic nature of marriage for women stand up in the light of contemporary data...Being single is the strongest risk factor for mental health problems for both sexes. Singles, whether never married, separated or divorced, have much higher rates of mental distress than married people.

In related news, Steve Sailer (here) points to a new Gallup poll that highlights differences in voting patterns between single and married people. Sailer summarizes the findings this way:

Gallup's new poll on the Congressional elections shows an enormous gap between unmarried women (who favor the Democrats 68%-32%) and married women (who favor the Republicans 58%-42%). Married women are now more Republican than married men (who prefer the GOP 54%-46%). Married people (of either sex) with children go GOP 59%-41%.

Let's see: married women are happier, healthier, and vote GOP. Unmarried women are more prone to mental problems, and vote for Democrats. Hmmm. What to make of this?

Say, do you suppose anyone has brought any of this news to the gals of "Sex in the City"?

Best,

Michael