Divorce statistics seem to be very popular. Along the way, many false numbers have crept in as people justify their reasons to leave their spouse. The Discovery Channel has tried to set the record straight about some of those myths. In the United States, the men still come out better:

A reanalysis of the data determined that the woman's loss [in standard of living] was 27 percent  while the man's gain was 10 percent.

It also seems that 66% (some people say as high as 90%) of all divorce proceedings are begun by women:

Two-thirds of all divorces are initiated by women. One recent study  found that many of the reasons for this have to do with the nature of  our divorce laws. For example, in most states women have a good chance  of receiving custody of their children. Because women more strongly want  to keep their children with them, in states where there is a  presumption of shared custody with the husband the percentage of women  who initiate divorces is much lower.

There was a great website that has been moved to hosting on the WordPress servers that is called Don’t Marry. The reason for its existence is explained at the beginning:

The intent is not to dissuade men from marrying, but to encourage them  to communicate frankly their concerns and expectations regarding  marriage with their potential spouses. The secondary aim of this essay  is to enlighten women to a few of the reasons why  increasingly larger numbers of successful, eligible, unmarried men, who  would otherwise prefer monogamous long-term relationships, are turning  their backs on marriage.

I would recommend that you read it (the link again: Don’t Marry).

Not to be too harsh, but exactly why should men marry women? If it is on the virtue of their being female then the guys are being led around by… well… you can figure it out. It is not much different than a sanctioned form of porn.

I saw a woman complain a couple days ago that a marriage as a business proposal was “SAD.” How else are men to evaluate it?

Do not get too upset with me. I do not actually believe this about everyone. But you and your kids will have to deal with a view of marriage that mirrors these descriptions. If I may be blunt again, there is some little fairness in this analysis. Men have much more individual freedom when they are single. A marriage exchanges that for a type of clan freedom. Why should he trade in his personal freedom?

The answer for Christians is that we are not our own (ie. I Corinthians 6:19). Every ability that has been given to us is there for either God or others. We were designed to enjoy the social exchange but it can be taken too far.