It isn’t hard to find a sordid and sad story of a cheating husband. The news reports constantly tell us of some male celebrity, politician or sports star that has cheated on his wife and made the front page of the gossip columns. Its isn’t any different in our private lives. Any trip to the local bar will result in tales of which guy is cheating on his wife with secretary, coworker or friends wife. What isn’t quite as common a story, is the rising thralls of women who are cheating on their husbands. According to Psychology Today magazine, women from their early 20’s all the way through to their 60’s are cheating on their husbands. While the rate of men’s infidelities have remained steady, female infidelity has increased to as much as a 55% risk of infidelity during the course of a lifetime. A figure that was once as low as 25%.
One point to consider here is that what we are seeing is not a reality but a perceived notion driven from a deeper awareness. In other words, maybe we are just now noticing that women have affairs too. For hundreds upon hundreds of years, women have not only been thought of as the purer, more delicate sex but also tortured and punished for any sexual infidelity. Hideous penalties such as stoning, rape, beating and mutilation were meted out for adultery. Killing a woman by strangulation, quartering or hanging for perfidy in the early days was mainstream. Not only are we just seeing that women cheat as much as men but we are also realizing that we have inadequate estimates. Adultery is still thought of as a disgraceful thing. People are reticent to tell the truth, even in anonymous surveys.
Cheating Is Much More Socially Accepted
As the years have progressed, infidelity is seen by more people as fairly commonplace. In fact, a study from the AARP showed that only 22% of those polled thought cheating was wrong compared to the 40% that thought is was wrong 20 years earlier. With information like this, it’s possible to believe women are cheating more. It may not be that women are cheating more, but that people feel more open talking about it openly. As history has shown us, women have never had the public freedom to be open about infidelity.
Despite the lessening social stigma, there are also reasons to believe that that increase in female infidelity was earned the old-fashioned way. According to the Huffington Post, the last two decades have seen a 40% increase in the number of women cheating on their husbands while the rate of male cheaters remained at a steady 20%. Experts attribute the rise in numbers to a rise in pay. Women are now able to hold high paying positions and more able to afford any financial fallout of a divorce. They are supporting themselves better than men in some cases. These better jobs and higher incomes can also contribute to the cheating when it affords wives access to a higher class of men than she’s married to.
Confidence Is Key
Women are also far more confident than ever before in human history. Confronted with an affair, they feel they can financially and emotionally weather any storm that may arise. Women have been raised to take care of themselves in recent generations. The do not have the same financial fears that previous generations endured. Nor do they have the sexual fears and frustrations of previous generations. When a marriage is full of boring, mundane and mediocre sex, women are more prone than ever to leave the marriage in search of better sex.
Entering the workforce gave women more opportunity for more income and financial security but also more opportunity for affairs. This just makes sense and is painfully obvious. When the majority of American women were stay at home moms and homemakers there wasn’t much opportunity to meet men unless it was the pool boy or a traveling salesman. Entering the workforce opened up a completely new world of people. A Huffington Post article claims more than half of women’s affairs take place with coworkers.
Change Is In The Air
Women are cheating more than they were 20 years ago for a number of reasons. Society changes as it progresses and the attitude toward women in all ways will continue to change. At one time, a smart man would stay away from a married woman, no matter how beautiful, out of respect for the husband and the state of marriage. Very few men still believe that married women are off limits. More often today a married woman is seen as a challenge. The sanctity of marriage exists only in the minds of those who think its important. The rest f the world doesn’t subscribe to that same train of thought.