Illustration by Barry Falls 
 
 Parents of girls are 5 percent more likely to divorce than parents of boys. Economists first analyzed the data that way in 2003, when Gordon Dahl at the University of Rochester and Enrico Moretti at U.C.L.A., identified that gap, and noted that it widened as you added boys or girls to a family. Parents of three girls, for instance, are 10 percent more likely to split than are parents of three boys. And, they found, an unmarried couple is more likely to marry if they learn their unborn child will be a boy than a girl. 
 
 For years the interpretation of that data has been that boys are an asset to a marriage and girls are somehow a liability. (One example of this line of thought is from Steven Landsburg, also of the University of Rochester, who laid out his families-prefer-boys argument in Slate back when the study was first published, and also in a chapter of his book “More Sex Is Safer Sex.”) Maybe fathers prefer boys and will work harder at keeping a relationship intact in order to raise them? Or the quality of married life is better with boys? Or boys are more likely to fall apart when their father leaves — hence their father doesn’t? However the question was phrased, it was basically about the benefits of boys. 
 
 But on the Web site of Psychology Today, Anita Kelly, a professor of psychology at Notre Dame, speculates that perhaps the opposite is true: that women who have daughters have less need for a husband. After all, she says, nearly three-quarters of all divorces involve a wife leaving her husband, so the question is not why do men stay for boys, but rather why mothers of daughters are divorcing more than mothers of sons. 
 
 Noting other studies, which show that adult sons who live at home increase the “chore” burden on their parents while adult daughters decrease it, and also that “females offer more and better social support than men,” she concludes: 
 
 … wives with daughters are less likely to stay with their husbands because they know that with a girl, they’ll never be lonely or without help. Thus, they may be less willing to tolerate any bad behaviors from their husbands (and less willing to stay married) because they don’t need their husbands as much. This idea could even explain why couples expecting a girl are less likely to marry: A woman carrying a girl anticipates that she won’t need a husband. 
 
 What do you make of the data? Does the idea that a girl will fill an emotional void influence whether a mother stays or leaves? If not, how to explain the statistical gap? ||||| Yes, it's true. In generation after generation across many countries, of girls divorce more than do parents of boys. 
 
 As Steven E. Landsburg put it in his Oct 2003 article for Slate magazine, "All over the world, boys hold marriages together, and girls break them up." 
 
 Economists Gordon Dahl (at the University of Rochester) and Enrico Moretti (at UCLA) discovered the following facts in 2003: In the United States, the parents of a girl are nearly 5 percent more likely to divorce than the parents of a boy. The parents of three girls are close to 10 percent more likely to divorce than the parents of three boys. 
 
 Not only do parents of daughters divorce more, but divorced women with daughters are substantially less likely to remarry than divorced women with sons. Landsburg suggested that "daughters are a liability in the market for a husband. Not only do daughters lower the probability of remarriage; they also lower the probability that a second , if it does occur, will succeed." 
 
 Perhaps most incredible are Dahl and Moretti's findings from unmarried couples who are expecting a child. If the couple is expecting a boy, they are more likely to get married. Landsburg interpreted this fact in the following way, "Apparently, for unmarried fathers, the prospect of living with a wife and a son is more alluring than the prospect of living with a wife and a daughter." 
 
 Is Landsburg right? Are daughters a curse for marriages? Why is that? Dahl and Moretti have summarized attempts to explain their facts as follows: Sons may either improve the quality of married life or worsen the pain of divorce (perhaps by becoming more distraught when the father leaves). Landsburg chooses the former explanation based on the fact that parents, on average, prefer having boys over having girls. 
 
 However, these explanations seem to have overlooked several important facts: 
 
 1. Recent statistics in the US show that 73% of divorces involve wives leaving their husbands. So, perhaps we should be wondering, "Why are mothers of daughters more than mothers of sons?" 
 
 2. When adult sons live at home, they add to the daily workload of their parents. When adult daughters live at home, they decrease the daily workload.* 
 
 3. Females offer more and better social support than do men (see Shelley Taylor's 2002 book, The Tending Instinct). 
 
 4. An enormous human is avoiding being lonely (see Cacioppo and Patrick's 2008 book, : Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection). 
 
 When we add up these facts, a conclusion we might draw is that wives with daughters are less likely to stay with their husbands because they know that with a girl, they'll never be lonely or without help. Thus, they may be less willing to tolerate any bad behaviors from their husbands (and less willing to stay married) because they don't need their husbands as much. This idea could even explain why couples expecting a girl are less likely to marry: A woman carrying a girl anticipates that she won't need a husband. 
 
 So, moms and dads of boys and girls, what do you think is going on? Please comment! 
 
 My blog is at https://www.TheCleverStudent.com 
 
 My paperback book, The Clever Student (2010), can be ordered at http://www.corbypublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=109 
 
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 References 
 
 *South, S. J., & Spitze, G. (1994). Housework in Marital and Nonmarital Households. American Sociological Review, 59, 327-347. 
 
 Raley, S., & Bianchi, S. (2006) Sons, Daughters, and Family Processes: Does of Children Matter? Annual Review of Sociology, 32: 401-421.
– Sociologists have puzzled over an odd stat for years: Parents are more likely to divorce if they have girls instead of boys. The New York Times parenting blog today takes note of a new theory by a Notre Dame psychologist: Women who have daughters don't need a husband as much "because they know that with a girl, they'll never be lonely or without help." These women "may be less willing to tolerate any bad behaviors from their husbands (and less willing to stay married)," writes psychologist Anita E. Kelly in Psychology Today. "This idea could even explain why couples expecting a girl are less likely to marry: A woman carrying a girl anticipates that she won't need a husband." As they say, girls rule, boys drool.