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Gender socialization shapes how men and women experience the benefits of marriage.

Marriage is associated with larger health and well-being benefits for men than for women.

Men often have fewer emotional support networks outside their romantic relationships.

This week, my partner scheduled two medical appointments in the same week. While I’m sure this felt a bit overwhelming for him, I couldn’t help feeling relieved that my months of reminders finally worked.

“Thanks for reminding me,” he said as he headed out the door for an appointment I had been encouraging him to make for quite some time. Half-jokingly, I found myself thinking: What would he do without me?

My question was asked in humor. But it also points to something I notice often in relationships—not just wives reminding husbands to schedule dentist appointments or medical visits, but a broader pattern in which one partner becomes the organizer, planner, and emotional manager of the relationship’s day-to-day functioning.

This dynamic raises a larger question researchers have been exploring for decades: why do men often appear to benefit more from marriage than women?

Gender socialization plays a part

For decades, researchers have noticed a consistent pattern: Marriage appears to provide greater health and psychological benefits for men than it does for women. At first glance, that conclusion may seem surprising—or even unfair. After all, both partners share the same relationship, so why would one partner benefit more?

The answer has less to do with marriage itself and more to do with the ways that many........

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