Stephanie Coontz teaches history and family studies at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. Her most recent book is "A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s."

It’s obviously good news for men that they are starting to catch up with women in longevity, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves in predicting the benefits of this convergence for the relationship prospects of older heterosexual women. The number of men 65 or older may be increasing faster than the number of their female counterparts, but there are still five million more women than men in that age group. And it remains true that older men have more opportunities than older women to repartner with someone of a younger age.

Men have been gaining skills and values that make them better able to care for themselves and for others. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.

Still, I don’t see a downside to the narrowing gap in male and female life expectancy, although I suppose a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage might not find her husband’s extended lifespan very beneficial. Among unhappy couples, even a few extra minutes a day with one’s spouse raises blood pressure and lowers immune functioning. So imagine the toll that extra years can take.

On the other hand, men and women in happy partnerships will have more time to enjoy and nurture each other. And an older woman who leaves an unhappy marriage already has a much greater chance of repartnering, if she wants to do so, than in the past. Her chances should improve further as the proportion of men in the over-65 age group continues to grow.

Cynics might claim that longer male life spans will simply mean a greater burden of caregiving for their female partners. Among the generation now in their late 60s and older, women typically shouldered most of the work involved in home life, from cooking to cleaning to nurturing. The flip side of such male privilege during the marriage was greater male vulnerability afterward: widowers have traditionally had higher rates of mental and physical illness, disability and suicide than widows.

But gender values and behaviors have been changing dramatically, and that’s good news for both men and women. Men have steadily upped their participation in housework and childcare since 1965. Their share of the cooking, for example, has risen by more than sixfold. Men have been gaining skills and values that make them more capable of caring for themselves and for others.

It’s important not to overestimate how extensive the burdens of caregiving are.

The psychologist Joshua Coleman, co-chair of the Council on Contemporary Families, predicts that young men’s heightened involvement in nurturing activities will have lasting effects across the life course, producing a world where women and men share the burdens of kinkeeping and caregiving more equally as they age.

And it’s important not to overestimate how extensive the burdens of caregiving are. Disability rates among the older population have been declining. According to the researcher Ashton Applewhite, “more than half of the oldest old (85 and older) report no significant disability and need no help with everyday activities.”

There are plenty of things to worry about in this unstable economy and polarized political climate. Let’s celebrate good news when it comes along!