Women Getting Short End of Stick When Shacking Up
by Bill Fancher
March 23, 2005
(AgapePress) - Some new studies indicate cohabiting women are paying a high price for living in non-marital relationships.Dr. Janice Crouse, executive director of the Beverly LaHaye Institute in Washington, DC, says the information from several studies is clear: non-marital relationships are costly to women. She explains that the cost starts at the financial level. Women in such relationships, she explains, typically contribute more than 70 percent of the household income.
But women in these types of relationships find themselves on the short end in other ways, she says. "Cohabiting males are four times more likely to cheat on their partners than are husbands," Crouse says. "And the mortality rate for women who cohabit is 50 percent higher than for wives."
Cohabiting women also suffer from the likelihood that they will be more involved in drugs, alcohol abuse, and suicidal tendencies. Traditional marriage, says Crouse, remains the best alternative for women.
And women are not the only ones who are paying the price for the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Society as a whole suffers, says Crouse, who cites a litany of ominous statistics.
"Thirty-five-million kids are affected by divorce. Forty-three-million abortions [since 1973]. Ten million [cases of] STDs a year among young adults. One-third of all children born out of wedlock. Fifty-million women living alone as unrelated individuals," she says, adding that the marriage rate has dropped by nearly 50 percent since 1970.
Crouse says these statistics prove that choices have consequences. And parents, she says, have the responsibility to prepare their children to make wise and informed choices regarding sexuality. Toward that end -- and in an effort to assist parents in addressing the sometimes touchy subject -- Crouse recently published "How to Talk to Your Child About Sex: The Sex Pyramid," in which she introduces a values-based approach to the traditional "birds and bees" discussion between parents and children.
Bill Fancher, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
