New study: married women less likely to suffer post-partum depression

The UK Daily Mail reports. (H/T Dina)

Excerpt:

The study of more than 6,000 women looked at the risks and benefits of marriage.

It found women who cohabited with their partners rather than being married to them were also more likely to suffer domestic abuse and/or abuse drugs. The less time they had lived together, the higher their risk.

Research leader Dr. Marcelo Urquia, from the University of Toronto, said: ‘We did not see that pattern among married women, who experienced less psychosocial problems, regardless of the length of time they lived together with their spouses.’

The study found that 10.6 per cent of married women suffering from post-natal depression.

The figure rose to 20 per cent for women cohabiting in ‘common-law’ relationships and 35 per cent for single women.

Most dramatically, it rose to 67 per cent for women who were separated or divorced in the year prior to the birth of a child.

[...]The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, coincides with the latest [UK] Census figures unveiled this week which revealed married couple households are in the minority for the first time.

While the number of married people stays constant at 21.2 million, the  number of single adults households has rises by three million compared with 2001.

The census report said there were just under 2.3 million cohabiting couples last year, compared to 2.06 million in 2001.

Cohabitees now make up 10 per cent of all households, while married couples lead 33 per cent of households.

Lone parent households make up another 10 per cent, and 30 per cent of homes have just one individual.

The troubling thing to me is that people aren’t serious about doing what it takes to prepare for marriage, and then choosing the right person for the job. Everyone knows that marriage is better for you financially, emotionally, and for your health, but somehow, people treat it as a casino game. We don’t know how to prepare for marriage with practices that work, like chastity, courting and church attendance. Bad outcomes like cohabitation, divorce and single motherhood don’t just happen by accident. People choose wrong approaches because they don’t want to do things the right way.

Filed under: News, Abuse, Chemistry, Cohabitating, Cohabitation, Depression, Divorce, Domestic Abuse, Domestic Violence, Drug Abuse, Feminism, Marriage, Mother, Single, Single-Mother, Study, Unchastity, Unmarried, Women

Barbara Kay traces the source of anti-male statistics used by feminists

Barbara Kay

Her latest column in the National Post.

Excerpt:

In the latest example of myth-making on the connection between sports and domestic violence, England’s Association of Chief Police Officers stated in May that during the World Cup “cases of domestic abuse increase by nearly 30% on England match days.” The figure came from a study sponsored by the British Home Office, so it seemed credible. The shocking figure sparked a big publicity campaign, with a lurid poster featuring a cowering woman covered in bruises and the imprint of a man’s shoe.

[...]An actually trustworthy study done by the London Metropolitan Police Authority contradicted the thirty percent “finding,” but by then the media had a story that was too good to check for veracity.

[...]Anyone remember the big 1993 Super Bowl Sunday hoax? The media all jumped on a bad statistic and ran with it then too. It was “reported” that domestic violence increased by 40% during the Super Bowl. Journalists called it the “abuse bowl” and NBC ran a public service announcement telling men to stay calm during the game or they would end up in jail.

In the same year the National Coalition against Domestic Violence circulated a brochure in which they claimed that half of American women would face violence from their mate and that “more than a third are battered repeatedly every year.” This is simply an outrageous lie – fewer than one percent of the female population can be said to be “battered” – but such was the hysteria around the subject of domestic violence at the time, that people were ready to believe all men were basically monsters.

Only one reporter, Ken Ringle of the Washington Post, actually ran down the stat to its source, which was an offhand comment by a feminist activist at a press conference. It was made up out of whole cloth. There was no actual increase of domestic violence during the game. And for the past 17 years since that Super Bowl, no one has found a domestic violence link to it.

Thank you Barbara Kay for telling the truth and defending men from irrational fears and hatred.

Why do these feminist myths emerge? And why do so many women believe them? And why do so few women investigate these issues themselves? What do women have to gain from believing in myths?

Well, if all men are predators, then it seems reasonable to think that women shouldn’t marry them, or trust them to be faithful protectors and providers. So what will women do for protectors and providers if men can be relied on? The answer is bigger government and more social programs – like taxpayer-funded abortions, taxpayer-funded day-care, taxpayer-funded IVF, etc. Laws may also be needed to control men’s behavior to keep them from being bad, since men are so awful. Pretty soon, it will be illegal to even criticize women for anything they do. Oh wait – that is already punishable by jail in France.

How can a man afford to marry and start a family when he is paying 40% of his income in taxes to replace men with government and to control men’s supposedly predatorial behavior? He can’t!

Christina Hoff Sommers

Christina Hoff Sommers

Christina Hoff Sommers is my favorite feminist scholar. She’s an equity feminist – that’s the good kind of feminist that is so rare today.

• The Equality Pay Day Reality Check
• Baseless Bias and the New Second Sex

I read both of those articles and I may blog about them later, but they are all worth reading now. If you want a really good long article on the alleged discrimination against women in math and science classes, then read this. It is long – but because it’s by Christina Hoff Sommers, it reads like poetry. You won’t even look up until you’re finished reading the whole thing. She is such a talented writer!

Filed under: Commentary, Barbara Kay, Big Government, Deception, Delusional, Distortion, Divorce Court, Domestic Abuse, Domestic Violence, Emotions, Emotivism, Fears, Feelings, Female Nature, Feminism, Feminist, Government, Irrational, Irrationality, Lies, Men, Misandry, Radical Feminism, Self-Deception, Statistics, Superbowl, Superbowl Sunday, Victim, Victim Mindset, Victimhood, Women, Women's Studies, World Cup

France passes law to jail spouses who commit psychological violence

Here is an article from the UK Daily Mail. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Married couples in France could end up with criminal records for insulting each other during arguments.

Under a new law, France is to become the first country in the world to ban ‘ psychological violence’ within marriage.

The law would apply to cohabiting couples and to both men and women.

It would cover men who shout at their wives and women who hurl abuse at their husbands – although it was not clear last night if nagging would be viewed as breaking the law.

The law is expected to cover every kind of insult including repeated rude remarks about a partner’s appearance, false allegations of infidelity and threats of physical violence.

Police are being urged to issue a caution in the first instance, but repeat offenders could face a fine, a restraining order or even jail.

Feminists don’t like long-term, stable male-female relationships, because they think that it creates unequal “husband” and “wife” roles.

This law will dissuade men from marrying. Men are not going to be happy about going to jail just because they tell their wives to spend less money, etc. And women need to start to do something to prevent such laws. Women are going to have decide whether they want to substitute courts, police and government-run social programs for husbands and fathers. They can’t have socialism and a family.

Until I see proof that women intend to crusade against these anti-male, anti-family laws, I am not going to be favorably disposed toward marriage. This is where we are going in the West, towards greater and greater feminism, higher taxes, more social programs, and greater regulation of the family by the courts. A man cannot be the head of a family when he has no power and no respect.

Filed under: News, Children, Crime, Domestic Abuse, Domestic Violence, EU, Europe, Family, Fascism, Feminism, France, Gender, Marriage, Men, Parenting, Police State, Psychological Violence, Secular Left, Secularism, Socialism, Spouse, Verbal Abuse, Women, Women's Rights

Twenty-one reasons why marriage matters

From the National Marriage Coalition in New Zealand. (H/T Jennifer Roback Morse)

Summary:

FAMILY

1. Marriage increases the likelihood that fathers have good relationships with their children
2. Cohabitation is not the functional equivalent of marriage
3. Growing up outside an intact marriage increases the likelihood that children themselves divorce or become unwed parents
4. Marriage is a virtually universal human institution.

ECONOMICS

5. Divorce and unmarried childbearing increase poverty for both children and mothers
6. Married couples seem to build more wealth on average than singles or cohabiting couples
7. Married men earn more money than do single men with similar education and job histories
8. Parental divorce (or failure to marry) appears to increase children’s risk of school failure
9. Parental divorce reduces the likelihood that children will graduate from college and achieve high-status jobs

PHYSICAL HEALTH AND LONGEVITY

10.Children who live with their own two married parents enjoy better physical health, on average, than do children in other family forms
11.Parental marriage is associated with a sharply lower risk of infant mortality
12.Marriage is associated with reduced rates of alcohol and substance abuse for both adults and teens
13.Married people, especially married men, have longer life expectancies than do otherwise similar singles
14.Marriage is associated with better health and lower rates of injury, illness, and disability for both men and women

MENTAL HEALTH AND EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING

15.Children whose parents divorce have higher rates of psychological distress and mental illness
16.Divorce appears significantly to increase the risk of suicide
17.Married mothers have lower rates of depression than do single or cohabiting mothers

CRIME AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

18.Boys raised in single-parent families are more likely to engage in delinquent and criminal behaviour
19.Marriage appear to reduce the risk that adults will be either perpetrators or victims of crime
20.Married women appear to have a lower risk of experiencing domestic violence than do cohabiting or dating women
21.A child who is not living with his or her own two married parents is at greater risk of child abuse

This is fun to read! You can learn to defend marriage, even if you favor lifelong chastity over marriage like I do.

The full PDF is here.

Filed under: Commentary, Child-bearing, Childbearing, Children, Cohabitation, Crime, Depression, Domestic Abuse, Domestic Violence, Economics, Emotional Well-Being, Employment, Family, Health, Institutionof Marriage, Jobs, Longevitiy, Marriage, Marriage Matters, Men, Mental Health, National Marriage Coalition, New Zealand, Parenting, Physical Health, Poverty, Relationships, School, Social Studies, Suicide, Traditional Marriage, Women