Thread by @MSS3RosaFerreum

@therealmissjo It would seem to be a popular opinion.

In general, men (regardless of age) seem to have a preference for women in their young 20s (advances.sciencemag.org/content/advanc…, p. 2) so it is not surprising that women in their 40s would find it difficult to find men who are attracted to them.

@therealmissjo When men reach their peak earnings, men can afford to start a family. Men need to outearn their wives for stable relationships, unfortunately.

"Men hit their peak-earning age 11 years later than women, at 55 versus 44…" (cnbc.com/2019/07/26/how…; payscale.com/data/peak-earn…).

@therealmissjo The problem is, in part, that men have to develop high enough steady earnings to date who they want and have a stable relationship with that woman.

"[W]ives’ high earnings were negatively associated with marital quality" (web.stanford.edu/~mrosenfe/Rose…, p. 19).

@therealmissjo "[H]eterosexual couples were especially likely to marry if the man had high earnings. … [A]mong heterosexual couples, earnings between partners became more unequal as the couples transitioned from cohabitation to marriage" (web.stanford.edu/~mrosenfe/Rose…, p. 5).

@therealmissjo "[T]he data suggest that married women sometimes stay out of the labor force so as to avoid a situation where they would become the primary breadwinner" (faculty.chicagobooth.edu/emir.kamenica/…, p. 596).

@therealmissjo "[W]hen the wife earns more than the husband, the likelihood of divorce increases by about 6[%]… [and s]ince 12[%] of couples in the sample get divorced, this … implies that having the wife earn more than the husband increases the likelihood of divorce by 50[%]" (Id., 602).

@therealmissjo Consider the above and consider that women initiate over 50% of the breakups and nearly 70% of the divorces (web.stanford.edu/~mrosenfe/Rose…, fig. 1, p. 34).

This is why the men in their 40s, @therealmissjo, are looking at younger women. They had to wait till they could afford them.

@therealmissjo @threader_app, please compile.

@therealmissjo @threadreaderapp, please unroll.