Marina Adshade explores the metaphor:
In making financial decisions women are far less willing to take on risky assets than are men; they appear more risk-averse. Single individuals, in turn, appear more risk-averse than married individuals and so it follows that married women, historically at least, are less risk averse that single women. … While in North America we have seen little change in divorce rates over the last decade, the same cannot be said for Italy. In fact in just two years (between 2000 and 2002) the divorce rate in that country increased by 45%. So in a period of increased risk in marriage the level of risk aversion of married women has converged to that of single women, which is consistent with our hypothesis that as marriage becomes a risky asset married women prefer safer assets.
The Dish 