Married men are much less likely than bachelors to be criminals, alcoholics, or drug addicts, and this helps explain why they live longer. A wife tells them to settle down and stay away from nights at the barroom or the street corner, and most men respond. As a result their mortality rate is lower. But the evidence strongly suggests that self-selection is not the key factor. Though marriage helps men's health and earnings, it is not true, as some suppose, that women are net losers.
Married women acquire more wealth, their mental health improves, and their happiness increases.
Raising children can, of course, put a lot of stress on women, but those who raise them single are psychologically worse off than those who are married. And for most women, having children is vastly more beneficial than whatever it costs in midnight feedings and endless chores. Since marriage has so many benefits, especially for men, it is astonishing that it should be in so much trouble. A few have no interest in marriage because they are gay or confirmed bachelors, but for many decades an increasing number have also rejected marriage to women whom they have impregnated. It is as if something good were offered to people and, preoccupied with what is in their immediate interest, they reject it in favor of the pleasures of unmarried sex, brief cohabitations, unmarried parenthood, and frequent divorce.