Overgiving

Multiple studies have shown, for instance, that heterosexual women who are married and have children do not live as long as women who are single and childless.  Why?  Because women give themselves to death.  In every way that success can be measured in society (longevity, prosperity, contentment, physical and mental health), wives and mothers pay - and pay dearly.  They also earn less money than their single counterparts while doing more unpaid work than their partners do (more housework, childcare, eldercare, volunteer work in the community, emotional support of neighbors, friends, and relatives, etc.). Married women and mothers also get less sleep and exercise than single women, and weigh more. They are more likely to be depressed or anxious, less likely to be sexually satisfied, more likely to abuse substances, and more likely to die from stress-related diseases, accidents, suicide, or homicide.     

On the other hand, it has been statistically proven that in every way success can be measured in society (once more:  longevity, prosperity, contentment, physical and mental health, etc.), married men strongly outperform single men. 

Why?

Because their female partners are literally pouring life into them, at a steep cost to their own existence. 

Paraphrased:  It's not only within the realm of marriage and motherhood that this pattern of overgiving exists. In academics, the corporate world, and within the realm of addiction and recovery this pattern holds - once more, at the expense of women.  

Who is pouring more care and nourishment into this relationship (or project or institution)? And who is the beneficiary of all that care and nourishment?  And what is the cost to the caregiver?

Elizabeth Gilbert, All the Way to the River* 

(*it's hard to recommend this book  / illustration inspired by Magritte)