The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

438 Chapter 11

effects on men’s than women’s health. The

effects of widowhood on health can be

understood in terms of the different strains

women and men suffer when they lose their

spouse. The primary reason widowhood

has stronger effects on men’s health has to

do with men’s loss of support; women have

alternative sources of support available

after widowhood. Men are more likely than

women to remarry after widowhood and to

do so sooner, and remarriage is associated

with health benefits for men.

Both women’s and men’s health suffers

upon relationship dissolution. It is not

clear whether men suffer greater ill effects

compared to women. Marital dissolution

seems to be associated with different strains

for women and men and to have different

consequences for women’s and men’s

social networks. Women are more likely to

initiate the breakup of relationships, and

women may be better prepared than men

for relationships to end.

Although the state of being married

seems to have more benefits for men’s

than women’s health, when the quality

of marriage is examined, women are

more strongly affected than men. Marital

interaction studies show that communication

patterns influence women’s more than

men’s physiology, especially when those

communications have to do with discussing

a marital conflict.

One important aspect of the marital

relationship that has implications for

relationship satisfaction as well as health

is how labor is divided in the family.

In general, women contribute more to

household labor than men regardless of

their employment status. Sex differences

in the division of labor are greatest among

married couples. Factors that influence how

labor is divided are based on power and

status, such as gender, income, education,

and hours worked outside the home.

Gender-role attitudes also influence the

division of labor within the family. Further

evidence that status and power influence the

division of labor in the heterosexual family

comes from studies of homosexual couples,

where household labor is divided more

equally.

In general, the more men contribute to

household labor, the more satisfied women

are. In fact, the division of labor in the

family has a stronger effect on women’s than

men’s marital satisfaction and well-being.

However, men do not have to participate

equally in household chores for women to be

satisfied. It is perhaps remarkable that more

women are not dissatisfied with the current

state of affairs. A primary reason has to do

with the fact that women make within-sex

rather than between-sex social comparisons.

Aside from marriage, the other

important relationship role held by many

adults is the parent role. Unlike the marital

role, there is no clear evidence that the

parent role benefits women’s and men’s

health. The mixed effects are due to the fact

that so many factors qualify the effect of

parenthood on health: ages and number of

children, whether the children live in the

home, income, and other roles that parents

possess. Women report more strains in the

parent role than men do. The quality of this

role influences both women’s and men’s

health, but the relation may be stronger

among women. Parenthood has a negative

effect on marital satisfaction. These effects

are stronger for women than men, largely

due to the greater restrictions on freedom

and the greater role changes that women

face when they become parents. The quality

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