The XX Factor: What women really think.



Monday, July 06, 2009 - Posts

  • Kay Hymowitz Fears for the Future of Marriage


    In the Wall Street Journal, my onetime sparring partner Kay Hymowitz argues that the discussion over the meltdown of white, middle-class marriage comes at a time when white, middle class marriages are particularly likely to last; the divorce rate for college-educated women is remarkably low. And despite the fact that her piece includes a sarcastic shoutout to Double X, I think she is mostly right. For all the talk of desperately bored empty nesters, marital satisfaction generally suffers when kids come along and rises when kids leave. The median age of first divorce for women is 29, not 59; it seems that the arrival of children is more likely to challenge a marriage than their sudden disappearance.

    Oddly, Hymowitz also insists that marriage is “suffering a full-scale crisis of consumer confidence” among this same subgroup, and reminds us that “in any crisis, people tend to panic.” In defense of this claim she cites the Sandra Tsing Loh's piece in the Atlantic, our discussion, John Edwards, and Mark Sanford. (The Gosselins, surely more powerful cultural actors than any of the former, go unmentioned.) So which is it? Is the institution of marriage safe and stable or ... (Read more at DoubleX.com.)
  • The Recession Has Really Screwed Recent College Grads


    That's a good market-driven thesis, Jess, for why Gen Y-ers have a reputation for acting entitled in the workplace: They've been demanding because they could be. Here's another way in which your mid-20s peers are luckier than their younger siblings and friends who are graduating from college right now. According to a study by economist Lisa Kahn of the Yale School of Management, graduating during a downturn has long-term bad consequences. "They include lower earnings, a slower climb up the occupational ladder and a widening gap between ... (Read more at DoubleX.com.)
  • Generation Y Is No More Entitled Than The Baby Boomers Before Us


    The New York Times had an article in its style section yesterday about college students' bleak prospects for employment this summer. The content is entirely unsurprising: We're in a recession where jobs are drying up for everyone. What interested me in this article was the 180 that experts are making on their previous assumptions about Generation Y: ... (Read more at DoubleX.com.)
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