Women OK, but remarrying ties men in a knot

FOR those who have walked down the aisle more than once, remarrying can bring a new lease of life.

But tying the knot multiple times is better for women than it is for men, according to research, as it buffers women’s health, helps them financially and gives their children a better chance of survival.

The same cannot be said for men, however. Their fitness was found to drop the more spouses they clocked up and they produced fewer surviving children.

Study author Professor Monique Borgerhoff Mulder said: ‘Our work suggests marrying multiple times may be a wise strategy for women where the necessities of life are hard.’

The study analysed births, deaths, marriages and divorces of 2,000 people in a west Tanzanian village where swapping partners is typical.

Benefit was measured in terms of numbers of surviving children.

The research, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, was a surprise as men typically gain more reproductively from having many partners.

Prof. Mulder, from the University of California, Davis, said: ‘These findings challenge simplistic evolutionary-derived sexual stereotypes about men and women, and force us to consider female strategies in multiple mating.’

Prof. Mulder added of the findings: ‘We show women’s fitness rises whereas men’s declines from an increase in the number of marriage partners.’

This was after taking into account the length of marriages, the increased duration of which improves men’s well-being most.

Prof. Mulder has written extensively about the lives of the Pimbwe people in the small Tanzanian village where she conducts anthropological and demographic research. It lies at the north end of the Rukwa Valley, in an area adjacent to floodplains and woodlands now designated as Katavi National Park.