Cheating: Experts Weigh In On Female Infidelity

According to recent data from the National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey, the number of women having affairs has increased 40 percent in the last two decades, and one in six married women now admit to having an affair. What's causing this increase? Celebrity divorce attorney Vikki Ziegler and psychotherapist Robi Ludwig stopped by "The Couch" Monday to weigh in. Ludwig said that the pressures of balancing a full-time job with household and parenting responsibilities may be driving women to cheat. “Emotionally, I think these women feel overburdened,” said Ludwig. “They’re working, in some cases earning a lot more money than their husbands, then they’re at home working and taking care of the kids.” And Ziegler said that because wives are more financially secure now than in decades past and no longer rely on their husbands' paychecks, the repercussions of an affair are not as daunting. “If women are actually cheating more and more, they know in the event they get caught, it’s not as if they’re going to be thrown out on the street,” Ziegler said. “They have savings, they have the ability to earn and take care of themselves and their children. The stigma is going to change.” To hear more of what Ziegler and Ludwig had to say about female adulterers, check out the full clip above. Then click through the slideshow below to test your knowledge of infidelity statistics.