This all boils down to one things: in a knowledge economy, women can earn more than they can in a brute-force-and-muscle economy.<p>There are two bell curves: income of men, and income of women.  At one point, the men's income bellcurve was way to the right of the women's: it was a rare woman who earned more than ANY man.  Thus, marriages of lower earning men to higher earning women were very rare.<p>Now, the women's bellcurve has moved to the right, so that it 85% overlaps men's.<p>There are a lot more possible pairings of men and women where the woman earns more.<p>This NYT article isn't really news - it's the inevitable outcome of the industrial and information revolutions.