The image of marriage being like a cage for women doesn't stand up in modern times, according to Ciara Kelly.
The Newstalk Breakfast host was responding to an Australian author who is asking why others are still buying into "the myth" that marriage is romantic, or that it will supposedly bring lifelong bliss.
In a column for The Guardian, Clementine Ford likened marriage to the colourfully decorated wagon the children are lured into by the Child Catcher in 1968 film 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'.
"Once women are safely ensconced in it, the bells and whistles adorning the exterior fall away to reveal nothing but a cage," she wrote.
'Much more egalitarian'
Ciara Kelly said there is one thing missing from her analysis of marriage.
"As I read it part of it made me laugh, but a lot of it made me go, 'She's right' - but there's something missing in it," she said.
"I can't argue with the individual points, the individual statistics, the individual facts but what about the fact that you fall in love?
"What about the fact that you meet somebody and you can't stop thinking about them, and you get butterflies in your stomach and they become your world?
"She's quite right that throughout the ages love matches weren't really a thing - it was pragmatism.
"But nowadays mostly we marry because we love somebody, and that seemed to be to be missing from this and I found it a bit depressing.
"The marriages that we have now reflect the times we're living in now and are much more egalitarian."
Is marriage still a misogynistic institution? Ciara and Shane discuss, on @NTBreakfast. pic.twitter.com/sqlXiW4Rzn
— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) November 1, 2023
'Is marriage better for men?'
Presenter Shane Coleman said he believes men benefit more from marriage than women do.
"That argument about 300 years ago - we're not living 300 years ago, we're living now," he said.
"I think [modern marriages] are more egalitarian, they're probably not egalitarian enough.
"Is marriage better for men? I think it probably is, on balance.
"People are still getting married and romance does matter, but romance doesn't last forever.
"I think she has a point; I think marriage is better for men than it is for women in general.
"I think if you are in a marriage with a difficult partner, I think that is really challenging, and that can be like a cage," he added.
