A marriage is shared. Variously, depending on the people, but shared. I feel that it should be shared 60 40 - you get 40 and give 60, and that rule is applied to both partners. [I found out recently that Pauling had proposed a modified Golden Rule along similar lines long before I dreamed this up. :-) ] Variously = some have a stay-at-home partner, some don't, and the sharing details vary. Folks have done estimates from time to time of the market value of the work contributed by the stay-at-home partner; the ones I recall outweigh most take-homes, but taxes complicate things. But. We share. Everything. As best we can. :-)