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Do engineers really make better spouses?

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21–30 of 129 posts

Re: Do engineers really make better spouses?

#21

I'm reminded of a scene from Scrubs where Turk tells JD: "I love how kids of divorced parents swear they have the market cornered on family dysfunction...". Point being - I don't view "not divorced" as a significant metric for a successful / happy marriage.

With a few exceptions, divorced marriages are all moderately unsuccessful marriages. The truly horrible marriages are the ones that last, but shouldn't.

Re: Do engineers really make better spouses?

#22
post #19
post #7

"The article also purports that the higher level of communication inherent in engineering jobs may be vital. A healthy communication in a marriage is vital for its survival." Yeah, us software engineers are renowned for our communication skills.

You do need good communication skills to be an effective software engineer.

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Re: Do engineers really make better spouses?

#23
post #2

There is age bias. Engineer often change profession once he gets older.

Really? My family is full of 50+ year old engineers and I can't think of any engineers that I know that changed careers as they got older. Sure some of them may have taken on more management responsibilities as they got older, but non of them left engineering.

Re: Do engineers really make better spouses?

#24
post #16

Divorce rates are also linked to income. Engineering is typically a more stable and better paying career than something like dance (given as the counterexample in the article). How much of the difference in divorce rates is attributable to that?

I wonder if a small part of the dancer/bartender vs engineer situation is that engineers (statistically usually male) often are working mostly with other men. My sister is married to a ballet dancer (who just retired to start studying to become a nurse) and he obviously was in pretty close contact with the opposite sex.

Yeah, those are two occupations where men can pick and choose. I've read somewhere that the relationships where the woman is more attractive than the man are the most stable, because the man feels lucky and will do his utmost to keep the relationship going. These occupations basically increase the man's effective attractiveness by placing him in a dating pool almost devoid of men. I would guess the same is true for male nurses.

Re: Do engineers really make better spouses?

#25
post #20
post #7

"The article also purports that the higher level of communication inherent in engineering jobs may be vital. A healthy communication in a marriage is vital for its survival." Yeah, us software engineers are renowned for our communication skills.

If I had to guess I would say it's the cause of 2 factors: 1.Certain professions attract certain personality types so you won't see a lot of extroverted social people choosing engineering as their profession Extroverts social as they are will always have more options and are less likely to stick around if things get sour. 2.Financial stability means that even if the woman is unhappy in the relationship she is more li…

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Re: Do engineers really make better spouses?

#26
post #20
post #7

"The article also purports that the higher level of communication inherent in engineering jobs may be vital. A healthy communication in a marriage is vital for its survival." Yeah, us software engineers are renowned for our communication skills.

If I had to guess I would say it's the cause of 2 factors: 1.Certain professions attract certain personality types so you won't see a lot of extroverted social people choosing engineering as their profession Extroverts social as they are will always have more options and are less likely to stick around if things get sour. 2.Financial stability means that even if the woman is unhappy in the relationship she is more li…

Just to clarify, in your view women: don't work, can't be engineers, always want to be in a relationship, and are terribly unfaithful and will leave you for somebody with more money? Also, maybe stop calling adult women "girls".

Re: Do engineers really make better spouses?

#27
Have you walked into the average engineering classroom? I remember my EE class had 90% male population. We were not exactly the coolest or most attractive looking group of guys. I think being grateful to finally meet someone that likes us plays a little role.

More seriously, people with engineering backgrounds tend to be analytic and may have made more logical choices prior to marriage, that result in longer lasting relationships. I think that that problem solving mentality could also contribute.

Re: Do engineers really make better spouses?

#28
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I had to guess I would say it's the cause of 2 factors: 1.Certain professions attract certain personality types so you won't see a lot of extroverted social people choosing engineering as their profession Extroverts social as they are will always have more options and are less likely to stick around if things get sour. 2.Financial stability means that even if the woman is unhappy in the relationship she is more li…

Just to clarify, in your view women: don't work, can't be engineers, always want to be in a relationship, and are terribly unfaithful and will leave you for somebody with more money? Also, maybe stop calling adult women "girls".

Yes. The post was also heteronormative.

Re: Do engineers really make better spouses?

#29
post #20
post #7

"The article also purports that the higher level of communication inherent in engineering jobs may be vital. A healthy communication in a marriage is vital for its survival." Yeah, us software engineers are renowned for our communication skills.

If I had to guess I would say it's the cause of 2 factors: 1.Certain professions attract certain personality types so you won't see a lot of extroverted social people choosing engineering as their profession Extroverts social as they are will always have more options and are less likely to stick around if things get sour. 2.Financial stability means that even if the woman is unhappy in the relationship she is more li…

> 2.Financial stability means that even if the woman is unhappy in the relationship she is more likely to stick around because it offers stability.

There's so many assumptions made in that sentence...

1) Women care about money more than happiness

2) Engineers are awash with money

3) Women aren't engineers

4) Men are engineers.

Re: Do engineers really make better spouses?

#30
post #7

"The article also purports that the higher level of communication inherent in engineering jobs may be vital. A healthy communication in a marriage is vital for its survival." Yeah, us software engineers are renowned for our communication skills.

I was thinking the exact same thing when I was reading this... amongst all the engineers I know, I don't think there are many - none I can think of who I would consider having a "higher level of communication". They might talk more... but I'll leave that sentence unfinished :P
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