Marital Economics

One in four women in the US now earns more than her husband.

One in four women in the US now earns more than her husband. And that’s subverting relationships for reasons couples often openly disdain. It all comes down to irrational expectations about the exercise of power in the relationship and seems to bring to light the  function of gender roles. So when the wife brings home the bacon, family dynamics may take a turn for the worse over injured identities and gender-role expectations. At the very least, the effort to replace economics with a new glue for the relationship can be painful. Working women report that their ability to bring home a paycheque increases feelings of power and gives them fulfillment and independence. But they also sense that society as a whole has yet to embrace female earning power as a positive. Part of the problem lies with men. When she earns more, he feels unimportant. And often anxious, sensing that the marriage itself is threatened, as though the old premise of the relationship no longer applies because she doesn’t need the protection of his earning power. He now has to invent a new platform on which to base the relationship.