Subscribe
The latest psychology and neuroscience discoveries.
My Account
  • Mental Health
  • Social Psychology
  • Cognitive Science
  • Psychopharmacology
No Result
View All Result
PsyPost
PsyPost
No Result
View All Result
Home Exclusive Relationships and Sexual Health

Couples in which the woman is the only earner report lower life satisfaction

by Helen Kowalewska
July 22, 2023
in Relationships and Sexual Health, Social Psychology
(Photo credit: Adobe Stock)

(Photo credit: Adobe Stock)


Enhance your understanding of the human mind and mental health trends by following PsyPost on MSN.
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Many women will, at least temporarily, be the breadwinner at some point in their relationship. Changing employment trends and gender roles will affect many households. But our new peer-reviewed study shows that for heterosexual couples, wellbeing is lower when the woman is the sole earner, versus if the man is the breadwinner or if both partners are employed.

Over 14 years of European social survey data, men and women reported lower life satisfaction when the female wife or partner was the breadwinner, with men suffering the most. This is true even after controlling for income, attitudes toward gender and other characteristics.

We analysed the survey responses of over 42,000 working-age people spanning nine countries. The data measures wellbeing by asking people to score how satisfied they are with their lives as a whole nowadays, from zero (extremely dissatisfied) to ten (extremely satisfied). Most people give a score between five and eight.

These “life satisfaction points” give us a sense of how different groups’ wellbeing compares. Before any controls, men’s life satisfaction is 5.86 when the woman is the sole earner, versus 7.16 when the man is the only earner. For women, the corresponding figures are 6.33 and 7.10 respectively.

Couples in Germany seem to struggle the most with female-breadwinner situations, followed by the UK, Ireland and Spain. However, the issue is fairly universal across Europe, even in more gender equal countries like Finland.

Men struggle more

In female-breadwinner households, men appear to struggle mentally more than women. We found that women’s breadwinning carries such a heavy psychological burden for men that they would prefer she was not employed at all. After accounting for basic characteristics, incomes and gender attitudes, out-of-work men report significantly higher life satisfaction when both partners are jobless.

Watching their partners go to the office (or work from home) every day might lead out-of-work men to feel worse about themselves. But when their partner is in the same boat as them, jobless men may instead feel like their lack of employment is less “deviant”.

Men in female-breadwinner couples report the lowest wellbeing when they are unemployed rather than “inactive” (not actively looking for work and/or doing housework or other care responsibilities). Unemployment is associated with the greatest psychological costs, such as self-doubt, uncertainty, loneliness and stigma. In this study, we do not include people who are inactive for health or disability reasons.

In fact, unemployed men would rather swap places with their breadwinner wives. Men’s wellbeing is significantly higher when the woman is unemployed instead of the man, whereas women report equally low wellbeing when either partner is unemployed.

Characteristics of female-breadwinner households

Certain factors may contribute to female-breadwinner couples’ low wellbeing. For example, these couples have lower average household incomes than two-earner and male-breadwinner households, and are more likely to find it “difficult” or “very difficult” to cope on their current income. Additionally, more men in female-breadwinner couples report “fair”, “bad” or “very bad” health and are less educated.

When we controlled for these and other basic characteristics (like age and children) as well as gender-role attitudes and each partner’s share of household income, women’s wellbeing is only marginally lower (-0.048 life satisfaction points) when the woman is the sole earner instead of the man.

Yet, even after accounting for these factors, men’s wellbeing is still over half a life satisfaction point lower (-0.585) when the woman is the only earner. In Germany, this difference is over one full life satisfaction point (-1.112).

So, while our study suggests the characteristics of female-breadwinner couples mostly explain women’s lower wellbeing, they do not account for the discrepancy with men’s wellbeing.

Masculinity, (un)employment and wellbeing

In many countries, being the breadwinner remains central to men’s sense of self. Providing financially for the family is key to masculinity and tantamount to being a “good” dad. When these roles are reversed, couples can experience social “sanctions” like gossiping, ridicule and judgement from family, friends, and other people they know, as well as mental health difficulties.

Unemployed men may be particularly vulnerable to isolation and loneliness, since they are less likely than women to have community or care-based social networks to draw on, like friendships developed at the school gates.

Meanwhile, gendered expectations of selflessness may lead women to go further than men in shielding a partner from the true extent of their distress. This could work the other way, too: when the man is unemployed, the woman may be more perceptive of and negatively affected by his struggles than he would be if these roles were reversed.

Yet, unemployment has become a normal part of working life, including for middle-class professionals who were traditionally more protected from this risk. Our findings suggest that gender norms affect how couples cope with unemployment, with men placing more value on their own employment status than their female partner’s.

Additionally, men’s distress under the female-breadwinner arrangement may trigger women to hold themselves back from taking jobs or seeking higher-paying roles, further reinforcing gender inequalities in employment rates, career progression and incomes.

Clearly, there is still a long way to go to sever the link between breadwinning and masculinity. Challenging this idealisation of male breadwinning is critical so that men no longer feel like failures when they fall short of this expectation.The Conversation

 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

ShareTweetSendScanShareSharePin1Send

Thanks for reading! Click here to support PsyPost by becoming a paid subscriber. In an age where information is abundant but quality knowledge is scarce, PsyPost ensures that you stay updated on the most recent and relevant discoveries made in psychology and neuroscience.

STAY CONNECTED

TRENDING

New neuroscience research upends traditional theories of early language learning in babies

New study confirms: Many adults opt for child-free life without regret

Female cat and dog owners tend to be slightly more involved with their families, potentially leading to better well-being, study finds

Autism and stress: A pivotal study highlights unique emotional challenges

New study on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sheds light on public attitudes towards interracial relationships

Owners of sex dolls are less prone to sexual aggression, but also have lower sexual self-esteem

RECENT

New psychology research links the tendency to feel victimized to support for political violence

Prenatal exposure to air pollution may disrupt cognitive development of children, study finds

Neurobiological similarity and empathy both play crucial roles in interpersonal communication, study finds

New neuroscience research upends traditional theories of early language learning in babies

Liberal media outlets display a higher aversion to artificial intelligence than conservative media, study finds

Birth control pills and depression: Large study reveals new insights

Income boosts self-esteem more than vice versa, new study reveals

Autism and stress: A pivotal study highlights unique emotional challenges

  • Cognitive Science
  • COVID-19
  • Mental Health
  • Social Psychology
  • Drug Research
  • Conspiracy Theories
  • Meditation
  • Psychology of Religion
  • Aviation Psychology and Human Factors
  • Relationships and Sexual Health
  • Evolutionary Psychology
  • Neuroimaging
  • Psychedelic Drugs
  • Dark Triad
  • Political Psychology
  • Contact us
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms and Conditions
Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Cognitive Science Research
  • Mental Health Research
  • Social Psychology Research
  • Drug Research
  • Relationship Research
  • About PsyPost
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Manage your privacy
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Statistics

Marketing

Features
Always active

Always active
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
Manage options
{title} {title} {title}
Manage your privacy

To provide the best experiences, we and our partners use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us and our partners to process personal data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site and show (non-) personalized ads. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.

Click below to consent to the above or make granular choices. Your choices will be applied to this site only. You can change your settings at any time, including withdrawing your consent, by using the toggles on the Cookie Policy, or by clicking on the manage consent button at the bottom of the screen.

Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Statistics

Marketing

Features
Always active

Always active
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
Manage options
{title} {title} {title}