The marriage expectations of 1898 are not a far cry from the worries of women in the present. In the past, there were many concerns of the economic value of a wife, whether it be abusing the wife's free labor, or marrying into a rich family for the sake of money. As times have slowly changed, the argument has not. The women are still doing much of the non-market work, but now it depends on her bargaining strength. During the last decade, women have become concerned with the economical impacts on behavior, ranging from the intra-household distribution power to the distribution of wealth by gender at marriage. This brings me to the focus of this paper, I will discuss whether or not it is economically advantageous for a woman to become part of the marriage market. .
When men and women fall in love, relative incomes are not the only things factored into whether or not to marry, but they do play an important role. There are costs and benefits that help people make the marriage decision, such as income and assets, time, and intimacy. There are also tax and health benefits implications for not getting married. Likewise, there are costs of divorce such as married families tend to have more income and wealth compared to divorced families. The economic costs of marriage are that married families have more demands to meet with the resources they have, married people have greater potential for conflict on the use of those resources, and financial policies that they adopt will affect and be affected by the family relationships. .
If a woman decides to marry, there is a chance she may leave behind her career and earning potential for the emotional benefits of marriage. Myra Strober asks the question of .
"What's a wife worth? What's a wife worth in a marriage that started with zero assets, but after thirty years of marriage has assets of about $100 million, which came from the husband's earnings and stock options? What's the "equitable distribution" at the time of divorce of that $100 million when during most of the marriage the wife has been a full-time homemaker, mother, and corporate wife? In other words, how should we think about valuing women's unpaid, invisible work?".
