financial equality

Women Now Paying for Their Own Engagement Rings

Photo: Lew Robertson/Corbis

There’s been a lot of talk lately about what women will do for an engagement ring: Make sandwiches, make silence pacts, and now, it turns out, they’ll even buy the ring themselves. According to a survey on the Knot’s Facebook page, an increasing number of heterosexual couples are splitting the cost of an engagement ring. Female respondents reported putting money down on their own ring to help out a less financially stable partner, paying for a ring with a joint account, or, in a few cases, agreeing to contribute in exchange for a larger rock.

Not all traditionalists have been swayed. According to a poll on the Today show, opinions are split: 54 percent of respondents said they wouldn’t be willing to split the cost of an engagement ring, and 46 percent said they would. But given that an increasing number of American women are the primary breadwinners in their families, helping foot the bill for a fancy rock seems only fair.

Women Now Paying for Their Own Engagement Rings