The higher infidelity rates among these two cohorts contribute to the changing pattern in the gender gap as they grow older over time. Women born in the 1940s and 1950s are more likely than other women to be unfaithful to their spouse, and men born in the 1930s and 1940s have a higher rate than other age groups of men. My analysis by gender suggests that men and women follow a slightly different age pattern when it comes to extramarital sex. As Nicholas Wolfinger noted in an earlier post, Americans born in the 1940s and 1950s reported the highest rates of extramarital sex, perhaps because they were the first generations to come of age during the sexual revolution. Meanwhile, the gender gap at ages 80+ increased from 5% to 12% in two decades.Ī generation or cohort effect is likely to contribute to this shifting gender gap in infidelity. Between 20, the highest rate of infidelity shifted to men ages 60 to 69 (29%) and women ages 50 to 59 (17%). It was lower for both men and women at the older end of the age spectrum. In the 1990s, the infidelity rate peaked among men ages 50 to 59 (31%) and women ages 40 to 49 (18%). Even so, older men were no more likely to cheat than their younger peers in the past. Trend data going back to the 1990s suggests that men have always been more likely than women to cheat. Thus, the gender gap in cheating peaks among the oldest age group (ages 80+): a difference of 18 percentage points between men and women. By comparison, the infidelity rate among men in their 70s is the highest (26%), and it remains high among men ages 80 and older (24%). Women in their 60s report the highest rate of infidelity (16%), but the share goes down sharply among women in their 70s and 80s. Infidelity for both men and women increases during the middle ages. But this gap quickly reverses among those ages 30 to 34 and grows wider in older age groups. Among ever-married adults ages 18 to 29, women are slightly more likely than men to be guilty of infidelity (11% vs. However, as the figure above indicates, this gender gap varies by age. In general, men are more likely than women to cheat: 20% of men and 13% of women reported that they’ve had sex with someone other than their spouse while married, according to data from the recent General Social Survey(GSS). To these women, sexual harassment/abuse also means infidelity. When Time magazine picked the silence breakers as the 2017 “person of the year,” few people paid attention to the other group of women negatively impacted by the fallout-the spouses of the men who engaged in inappropriate or even criminal (in some cases) sexual behavior. It continues into the new year, with Missouri Governor Eric Greitens the latest to fall. The last few months of 2017 treated us to a whirlwind of news coverage on sexual harassment and abuse, with powerful men from Hollywood to Washington, D.C.
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