Divorce risk ‘ups women’s working hours’

Marriages moving towards the brink of collapse result in wives putting in more time at work, research has suggested. The study by researchers from the London School of Economics and Political Science discovered women worked an additional 12 minutes a week as insurance against divorce for each 1% increase to the risk of their marriage breaking down. The study examined women’s working hours in Ireland following its legalisation of divorce in 1996. Religious married women were used as a control group as their divorce rate remained marginal but non-religious wives put in 18% more time at work after the legislation was passed, the research team found. Co-researcher Dr Berkay Ozcan said they’d found wives who were at a higher risk of divorce “significantly” increased the amount of time they spent working. Dr Ozcan said the trend wasn’t down to women going out to work being more likely to see their marriage fail, adding: “Rather, faced with a rising probability of divorce, women work more, whether they ultimately separate or not. They are working as a form of insurance in case of divorce or in anticipation of it.”

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