October 11, 2016
Interview with Susan Shapiro Barash,  author of the book The 9 Phases Of Marriage
Mike Carruthers: Men and women often enter into marriage with very different expectations.
Susan Shapiro Barash: Very much a gender divide it really is a gender divide what you get from your marriage and what you want from your marriage.
Susan Shapiro Barash, author of the book The 9 Phases Of Marriage conducted some fascinating research on married women.
Women hold the bar very high as wives and the cultural messaging is so important to us. Romantic love trumps it all but how do you keep that alive and without it where are you in this marriage? Women today really want a best friend, a lover and a confidant – and it is a tall order.
Especially today when people are so busy.
The idea of being taken for granted is such a pervasive complaint or a wife who says she starts to feel invisible or that she’s simply the help maid and the social director and that the romance is really evaporated. And interesting part of this study for me was how women feel as mothers once the children come into the picture. Are you and your husband on board for a very child centric marriage? Or do you kind of miss date night and he’s not even interested anymore?
While men could certainly devote more attention to their marriage, Susan says, women might do better to lower their expectations.
It’s a better way to have a marriage that hums along.
