Wifework : What Marriage Really Means for Women

Almost half of all marriages end in divorce. Three-quarters of these divorces are initiated by women. Why?

Wifework.

In an era of equal opportunity, Susan Maushart reveals, wives still do the vast bulk of the physical and emotional work in a marriage. From counselling to toilet cleaning, strategic planning to quality control, it is wives who shoulder the double burden of childcare and man-care.

Wifework examines with devastating honesty how hard women will work to keep a marriage running, and looks fearlessly at the cost for children when they decide to stop.

This book is lucid, funny and provocative. Every woman will recognise its compelling message—and every married man will have to.

Praise for Wifework:

‘Maushart makes a good case for attitudinal change and teases out a reasoned argument analysing how and why the institution of marriage can become distorted and made miserable by perceptions of who should or should not do what…A serious attempt to unravel the reasons why so many marriages fail today.’

Canberra Times

‘100% honest…smart and witty.’

Publishers Weekly

‘There is probably not a wife on this planet who doesn’t know exactly what Maushart means by “wifework”.’

Sunday Times