“I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU HUSBAND AND WIFE... AND WIFE”

Picture the typical all-American family. The year is 1950, Mr. Adams is the breadwinner of the family while Mrs. Adams is a homemaker. They live a lovely life and everyone is very happy. Now take the Adams family and throw them 50 years into the future. Suddenly, Mrs. Adams has to work in order to make ends meet, as well as do all the household work and raise the children. She asks Mr. Adams to help her out at home but somehow it’s always her that ends up doing all the household work. Mrs. Adams can no longer deal with the pressure of being a breadwinner for her family as well as a homemaker... 

But what if there was another Mrs. Adams to help her out?

The most common type of marriage in America is monogamy: one husband and one wife. 50 years ago, when the woman’s only role in the family was to be a homemaker, this type of marriage was perfect. However, today this is no longer the case. While the man’s primary role is still the breadwinner, the women’s role in the family has evolved. She is no longer just a homemaker but a breadwinner as well. With this new role that the woman now has to assume, monogamy is no longer the kind of marriage that is best for today’s society. The kind of marriage that is best for today’s society is polygamy: one husband and many wives.

Being a homemaker and a breadwinner is simply too much for one woman to take on. In Andy Hochschild’s book The Second Shift: Woking Parents and the Revolution at Home she argues that working wives end up doing most of the housework and they feel dissatisfied that the housework is not divided evenly. However, they feel that this is something they cannot change. The most practical solution to this prevalent problem is to add another woman to the picture. By adding one more wife to the picture suddenly all the problems disappear. With two wives, the household work can be divided evenly amongst them so that they no longer feel overworked and disgruntled and one wife can work in order to provide for her family without leaving her children without a mother to care for them. 

As the gender-role stereotypes of our society change, our type of marriage has to change too. While polygamy can be a difficult concept for some people to accept, it is impossible to deny that it is the type of marriage that works best in today’s society.