How do women, careers and marriage mix? Not well, say social scientists.

──社会科学家发现，女性、职业和婚姻不合

Guys: A word of advice. Marry pretty women or ugly ones. Short ones or tall ones. Blondes or brunettes. Just, whatever you do, don't marry a woman with a career.

弟兄们，给大伙儿一句建议：无论娶漂亮的还是难看的，娶高的还是矮的，白肤金发碧眼的还是皮肤浅黑的，都不要娶职业女性。

Why? Because if many social scientists are to be believed, you run a higher risk of having a rocky marriage. While everyone knows that marriage can be stressful, recent studies have found professional women are more likely to get divorced, more likely to cheat, less likely to have children, and, if they do have kids, they are more likely to be unhappy about it. A recent study in Social Forces, a research journal, found that women--even those with a "feminist" outlook--are happier when their husband is the primary breadwinner.

为什么这样建议呢？如果你相信多数社会科学家的观点，娶职业女性将给你带来更高的婚姻不稳的风险。尽管我们都知道婚姻本身可能带来压力，但最近的研究发现职业女性更容易离婚，更容易搞婚外恋，更可能不要孩子，即使有了孩子她们也更可能对此忿忿不平。《社会力量》这本调查杂志最新的研究发现，当丈夫是家庭主要经济收入者时大多数女性会更高兴，即使那些披着“女权主义者”的外衣的女性也难逃俗套。

Not a happy conclusion, especially given that many men, particularly successful men, are attracted to women with similar goals and aspirations. And why not? After all, your typical career girl is well-educated, ambitious, informed and engaged. All seemingly good things, right? Sure…at least until you get married. Then, to put it bluntly, the more successful she is the more likely she is to grow dissatisfied with you. Sound familiar?

结局不妙啊！特别是考虑到很多男性，尤其是成功男士，都倾心于那些和自己有着同样目标和野心的女性。谁又能免俗呢？毕竟一个标准白领丽人受过良好的教育，积极进取，知识渊博，工作稳定！这些看来都是优点，不是吗？当然是优点了...至少在你结婚之前。等你一进围城，说得露骨点儿，她越成功，就会越容易对你不满意。听起来是不是很耳熟呢？

Many factors contribute to a stable marriage, including the marital status of your spouse's parents (folks with divorced parents are significantly more likely to get divorced themselves), age at first marriage, race, religious beliefs and socio-economic status. And, of course, many working women are indeed happily and fruitfully married--it's just that they are less likely to be so than non-working women. And that, statistically speaking, is the rub.

要想建立稳固的婚姻，需要多种因素的支持，包括你配偶的父母的婚姻状况(父母离婚的孩子将来离婚的可能性也会大很多)，初次结婚的年龄，种族，宗教信仰和社会经济状况等等。当然，也有很多职业女性婚后很快乐也使得婚姻很充实，但这种可能性要比不工作的女性的可能性要小得多。

To be clear, we're not talking about a high-school dropout minding a cash register. For our purposes, a "career girl" has a university-level (or higher) education, works more than 35 hours a week outside the home and makes more than $30,000 a year.

不过我们还得说清楚点，我们在这儿说的职业女性不是指高中毕业后去当收银员的那种女性。我们指的“职业女性”是指有着大学或以上学历，每周在家外工作超过35个小时，每年收入超过3万美元的女性。

If a host of studies are to be believed, marrying these women is asking for trouble. If they quit their jobs and stay home with the kids, they will be unhappy (Journal of Marriage and Family, 2003). They will be unhappy if they make more money than you do (Social Forces, 2006). You will be unhappy if they make more money than you do (Journal of Marriage and Family, 2001). You will be more likely to fall ill (American Journal of Sociology). Even your house will be dirtier (Institute for Social Research).

如果我们相信一系列调查的结果的话，我们将会发现，娶这些女性真是自取烦恼。如果让她们辞去工作在家看孩子的话，他们会不高兴(《婚姻与家庭》2003)；如果她们比你挣的钱多，她们会不高兴(《社会力量》2006)；如果她们挣得比你多，你也会不高兴(《婚姻与家庭》2001)；如果娶职业女性，你将更有可能生病(《美国社会学》)；如果娶职业女性，你的家很可能变得更脏(社会研究院)。

Why? Well, despite the fact that the link between work, women and divorce rates is complex and controversial, much of the reasoning is based on a lot of economic theory and a bit of common sense. In classic economics, a marriage is, at least in part, an exercise in labor specialization. Traditionally men have tended to do "market" or paid work outside the home and women have tended to do "non-market" or household work, including raising children. All of the work must get done by somebody, and this pairing, regardless of who is in the home and who is outside the home, accomplishes that goal. Nobel laureate Gary S. Becker argued that when the labor specialization in a marriage decreases--if, for example, both spouses have careers--the overall value of the marriage is lower for both partners because less of the total needed work is getting done, making life harder for both partners and divorce more likely. And, indeed, empirical studies have concluded just that.

为什么会这样呢？尽管工作、女性和离婚率之间的关系一直是个很复杂而且有争议的话题，大部分理据都是基于大量的经济理论和常识来进行的。在传统经济学中，婚姻至少在一定程度上是劳动分工的演变。传统上来讲，男性多从事家庭之外的有偿的“市场”工作，而女性则从事“非市场”活动，如做家务、照顾孩子等。所有这些工作都必须有人来做，所以无论谁做什么，婚姻这种组合都能够达到解决劳动任务这个目的。诺贝尔经济学奖得主,着名的人类行为经济分析大师加里-贝克曾辩论说，当婚姻中的劳动分工下降时， 比如夫妻双方都有工作时，婚姻整体的价值对双方都会有所下降，因为需要做的工作的总量没有完成，使得生活对双方都更加困难，从而导致离婚的可能性增大。实际上，实际研究也证明这一点。

In 2004, John H. Johnson examined data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and concluded that gender has a significant influence on the relationship between work hours and increases in the probability of divorce. Women's work hours consistently increase divorce, whereas increases in men's work hours often have no statistical effect. "I also find that the incidence in divorce is far higher in couples where both spouses are working than in couples where only one spouse is employed," Johnson says. A few other studies, which have focused on employment (as opposed to working hours) have concluded that working outside the home actually increases marital stability, at least when the marriage is a happy one. But even in these studies, wives' employment does correlate positively to divorce rates, when the marriage is of "low marital quality."

2004年，约翰-约翰逊整理一份调查的数据后得出结论：性别对工作时间和离婚率上升的关系上有很大影响。女性的工作时间上升导致离婚率上升，而男性工作时间的上升对离婚率则没有具体影响。约翰逊表示：“我同时发现夫妻双方都工作的婚姻离婚率要比只有一方工作的要高得多。”另外几个注重于就业的研究得出结论显示在家外工作实际上增加了婚姻的稳定性，尤其是当一桩婚姻很幸福时。即使在这些研究中，当婚姻质量低下时，妻子的就业也和离婚率正相关。

The other reason a career can hurt a marriage will be obvious to anyone who has seen their mate run off with a co-worker: When your spouse works outside the home, chances increase they'll meet someone they like more than you. "The work environment provides a host of potential partners," researcher Adrian J. Blow reported in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, "and individuals frequently find themselves spending a great deal of time with these individuals."

另一个事业可以伤害婚姻的原因则更加明显。但凡有过妻子和她男同事跑了的经历的男人对这个理由都不陌生：当妻子在外工作时，她们遇到更心仪的男性的几率就大大增加了。埃德里安-布娄在《婚姻与家庭疗法》杂志上发表的一份报告中表示：“工作环境提供了很多可能的未来的伙伴，而工作者也发现他们花很多时间在和这些可能的伙伴们相处。”

There's more: According to a wide-ranging review of the published literature, highly educated people are more likely to have had extra-marital sex (those with graduate degrees are 1.75 more likely to have cheated than those with high school diplomas.) Additionally, individuals who earn more than $30,000 a year are more likely to cheat. 　

此外，还有更多的原因显示职业女性不利于婚姻发展。大量通读发表后的各种文献我们会发现，受过高等教育的人更容易发生婚外恋。有着大学学历的人欺骗婚姻的比率是只有高中学历的人的1.75倍。 更有甚者，年薪超过三万美元的个人更可能红杏出墙。

And if the cheating leads to divorce, you're really in trouble. Divorce has been positively correlated with higher rates of alcoholism, clinical depression and suicide. Other studies have associated divorce with increased rates of cancer, stroke, and sexually-transmitted disease. Plus divorce is financially devastating. According to one recent study on "Marriage and Divorce's Impact on Wealth," published in The Journal of Sociology, divorced people see their overall net worth drop an average of 77%.

如果妻子不忠导致离婚的话，丈夫就真有麻烦了。因为离婚通常会导致酗酒、郁闷甚至自杀。另外的一些研究还显示离婚会导致癌症、中风和性传播疾病几率的上升。最近发表在《社会学》杂志上一篇题为“婚姻和离婚对财产的影响”一文中透露，离婚者认为他们全部的净财产减少77%。

So why not just stay single? Because, academically speaking, a solid marriage has a host of benefits beyond just individual "happiness." There are broader social and health implications as well. According to a 2004 paper entitled "What Do Social Scientists Know About the Benefits of Marriage?" marriage is positively associated with "better outcomes for children under most circumstances," higher earnings for adult men, and "being married and being in a satisfying marriage are positively associated with health and negatively associated with mortality." In other words, a good marriage is associated with a higher income, a longer, healthier life and better-adjusted kids.

既然这样，为什么不选择单身呢？讲的学术点，因为一个稳固的婚姻带来的好处远远超过单身的小“幸福”。同时，婚姻还会带来广泛的社会和健康含义。2004年发表的一篇题为“社会科学家们对婚姻的好处了解多少？”一文中显示，一个好的婚姻与更高的收入、更健康的生活和孩子们更有希望的未来有关系。

A word of caution, though: As with any social scientific study, it's important not to confuse correlation with causation. In other words, just because married folks are healthier than single people, it doesn't mean that marriage is causing the health gains. It could just be that healthier people are more likely to be married.

当然最后还要提醒一句，不要弄混淆了相关性和因果性的关系。也就是说，结婚了的人比单身的人更健康，并不意味着婚姻可以增加健康，也有可能是更加健康的人更容易结婚罢了。