The Marriage Effect
[This is my reply to a letter-to-the-editor in a local newspaper, The Daily Review , in Towanda, PA] After I read Jeff Deutschle's letter, " Does marriage really matter? ," ( The Daily Review , Sept. 3, 2015), I checked the date to see if a temporal anomaly had transported be back to the 1950s. Nope -- I was still in the 2nd decade of the 21st century. Deutschle started by citing a study, " The Marriage Effect: Money or Parenting? ," and claimed that, "children raised by married parents typically do better in life on almost every available economic and social measure." This seems like a reasonable conclusion because of potentially increased income and parental engagement, and the sharing of responsibilities between parents. Then Deutschle regresses back to the 1950s with, "Married parents have gender specific roles." I was expecting him to also cite " The Good Wife's Guide " from a 1955 Housekeeping Monthly that advises