Because the family is a highly gendered institution, the authors anticipated that characteristics of husbands and wives would have differing influences on marital disruption. Longitudinal data from the National Survey of Families and Households were used to examine the influence of sociodemographic and attitudinal characteristics of each spouse on the likelihood of marital disruption. In general, wives' variables have a stronger influence than do husbands' variables, suggesting that wives play a greater role in maintenance of marital relationships and are more sensitive to problems in the relationship. The relative influence of each spouse's characteristics is more similar in egalitarian marriages, however. Findings confirm the gendered nature of marital relationships.
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