What’s the Best Way for Women to Trick their Husbands into Buying Them Shoes?

"How do modern couples manage their finances - and how does that affect the status of women, their long-term financial security and even their career prospects?"

That's the opening line of Katrin Bennhold's piece in today's New York Times (which we came across via The Billfold) about marriage's "unseen bottom line." A worthy, thought-provoking question, right? Unfortunately, Bennhold — who, it should be noted, is not writing in the Opinion pages but for the "Europe" section — has apparently traveled back a few decades to an era in which women are completely ignorant about their family finances, and pool money with their partners not to foster equality in a mature relationship but so they can "enjoy some unscrutinized spending." Betty Draper, is that you?

Bennhold polled 44 of her "highly educated" European and American friends, most of whom have children and jobs and share money with their husbands, because she was interested how they divvy up costs, given that most of her friends make less money than their spouses. Well, no, she was interested in what the men felt comfortable allowing their wives to purchase — because, apparently, these men don't ever buy anything frivolous, as they are pillars of stoicism and security working tirelessly to make sure their ungrateful wives can buy Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin heels. Here she goes: