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Are you a wife who can't help being a backseat driver? That's one demerit. And husbands, don't reflect too fondly on your bachelor days or it'll cost you, according to a marriage rating scale devised in the 1930s by Northwestern lecturer George W. Crane (WCAS22, G23, 27).
News coverage recently surfaced on the rating scale, which provides a nuanced view of marriage in that era and illustrates the evolution of gender roles.
Crane served as a psychology lecturer in the Evening Division, now the School of Continuing Studies, during the 1930s and became a popular syndicated advice columnist. He also founded a matchmaking service that claimed to have set up more than 5,000 marriages.
Crane died in 1995 at the age of 94. He was the father of former U.S. Reps. Dan and Phil Crane.
The marital rating scales are held at the Archives of the History of American Psychology at the University of Akron.
Click the rating scales at right to view them full size.