Female Supremacy Articles - Page 18

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"He can take me to one of his functions and I can fit in just fine," says Ms. McManus, an executive assistant and office manager at Chicago's uBid Inc., an online auction company. "But when I take him to mine, he has a hard time."

Ms. McManus' struggles may reflect those of many marriages, but there is an extra twist: Ms. McManus works in a business setting, while her husband is a carpenter. Their differences range from the way they dress — she wears slacks or skirts and blouses, while her husband slips into jeans, T-shirts and sweatshirts — to dinner table conversations.

"He works in a different world," she says. "If it's not about buildings, he doesn't have a lot to say. And I lose interest, too."

Her husband, Anthony McManus, who has his own carpentry business, acknowledges that "conversations in general," especially after his wife started a new job where he didn't know anyone, are the most difficult aspect of a white collar项圈 — a band worn around the neck-blue collar项圈 — a band worn around the neck marriage.

Experts say this mix exacerbates the usual challenges of marriage. Though men still overwhelmingly earn more than women, there are a growing number of couples in which women earn more and have more education than their partners. Women overtook men in college enrollment 20 years ago, and that gap has only widened. In 2002, 9.4 million women enrolled in college, and just 7.2 million men, according to the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics.