When it comes to handling household finances, men have traditionally played the dominant role. Of course we all knew women who "paid the bills," but in most cases writing checks was hardly more than a clerical duty, and certainly never indicated that the "little woman" knew all there was to know about her family’s financial situation. In fact, the truth is she probably preferred not to know!

So imagine the surprise at FindLaw.com, a free legal information website, when an August survey of money and marriage found that young women aged 18 to 34 are the most likely among married people to manage family finances, to know the most about their financial situation and to be least likely to argue over money issues. "We conduct national surveys on a number of legal issues, but occasionally we do one on relationships and personal finance as an opportunity to combine the two," says Leonard W. Lee, FindLaw researcher and spokesperson. "People tend to think of marriage in terms of love and marriage, but in addition, it involves very serious legal and financial issues: Property rights, assets brought into the marriage and/or acquired during it, contract rights and of course, divorce, so how much spouses know about each other’s finances becomes very important."

Not unexpectedly, the demographically balanced survey of 1,000 American adults ranging from 18 to over 65 found money to be the number one issue most couples said they fight about. "But what kind of jumped out at us was that this was not true in younger couples, particularly women in the 18- to 34-year-old age group. Younger married women tend to know a lot more about their spouse’s finances," Lee continues. "It seems that [they] have their own unique set of characteristics."

While this may have surprised the FindLaw researchers, it is not news to Boston-based psychologist Susan Massenzio. Massenzio, who specializes in counseling women of substantial wealth, often in multi-generational families, sees the new findings as an inevitable result. "Women who are in their early thirties today, who never had to truly fight for their independence, have a sense of entitlement," Massenzio points out. "Look at the numbers of women who are not just breaking through the glass ceiling, but breaking out and starting their own businesses. Clearly these women are invested in understanding their own wealth and managing their own finances."

Recently FiLife columnist Eleanor Blayney speculated that aspects of the financial gender gap may be disappearing. Massenzio prefers to think of the gap as closing. And the reasons for such contraction go beyond both gender and generation, she says. For hundreds of years, men dominated household finances. After all, they were expected to earn the money, women to spend it, and with patronizing indulgence, not always wisely. In the 1970s, the picture began to change. Women entered the workforce in significant numbers. "But even for women who grew up in the 50s, many still looked for men to be their financial adviser, whether it was their husbands or fathers or the [professionals] they chose," Massenzio says.

The 1960s brought a marked reaction to the 50s: "But as strident as we were," Massenzio adds, "we still felt the man should earn more, should pay the bills. We created financial independence, but we became independent in terms of our professional lives, our bodies, our careers. Financially, there was still a reliance on men."

The generations that followed found the ground already broken. "The striking difference was that in the 60s and 70s, we were reacting to the 50s, while women who are now in their thirties never experienced that. They believe in their own ability. Part of that is the era and part of that is who [they are] as a person …their character type, family dynamics, even geography. We come into the world with our own character types," says Massenzio. "Then it depends on what happens in our culture, our environment and in the era in which we find ourselves."

And what an era it is! Unemployment statistics report that men have suffered three-quarters of the job losses in this economy. At the Center for American Progress, economist Heather Boushey, has calculated that from 2007 to 2009, the percentage of working wives with unemployed husbands (men who were actively, but unsuccessfully, looking for work) rose 2.4% to 5.4%, and another 15.6% (up from 12.1%) of women have husbands who are out of the labor force. By contrast, the percentage of men whose wives have opted out barely budged, according to Boushey.

No wonder the latest generation of female breadwinners, raised to expect that they can be financially independent, is taking charge. Still, one can only speculate whether, in the end, this will lead to less squabbling over money or more!