Except that it's not. Research indicates that this metric has been on the decline for decades, and the more women earn their own money, the less they care about how much their man earns - as long as he's not a freeloader. In 20% of long term partnerships, the woman earns more than the man, and in 30% they earn the same. Please, just stop with these archaic "truisms" that aren't remotely true.
"A relentless focus on “mating value,” narrowly conceived, also contrasts with an analysis of several data sets reporting what characteristics men and women find more and less important in a partner. These show that for the past seventy-five years, across a number of different countries, the most important attributes in a long-term partner for both women and men have nothing to do with youthful fertility traded for resources."
Fine, Cordelia. Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society (p. 75). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
"In societies where women are approaching equality with men in economic and political affairs, they are much less likely to seek older, high-earning men as husbands than in ones where women have fewer options for independence."
Of course, financial stability makes many other things much, much easier, but there is a big difference between that and earning power being the most important thing that women look for in a partner. How about a little nuance, please?
Nobody wants a lazy layabout with no plans and no ambition, or someone who is going to potentially be a drain on them financially, but again, that's a far cry from necessarily having "earning power."
