Do men now prefer a woman who earns well? The spousal income gap persists, but something is changing
As women, we are almost always used to taking for granted that a potential future male partner should be the one who earns more, specifically, and more generally the one who dedicates himself with strength and passion to his career and personal achievement. He will do it for his family, of course, but he will also do it because it makes him powerful, the one who brings home the bread (breadwinner), the cornerstone of the family's survival, he will do it because he is the man of the house. Because the man is the provider, and he has been since the birth of the nuclear family, since the rise of the bourgeoisie, since, among other things, he gave up fashion to wear a three-piece suit to go to work. While the woman stays at home tending to the hearth and the children, he goes out into the world, gains experience, meets people, and sees things. For this reason, on TikTok, stay-at-home girlfriends pop up like snowdrops, and for this reason, girls say they are looking for a man who works in finance (tall and with blue eyes, too). For this reason as well, women are told to marry rich, meaning marry a wealthy man to secure their life, as if marriage were a work contract. For this reason again, the work belongs only to the man, and the woman’s work (care work, constant) is just the other side of the coin and does not need to be paid. For this reason, in a perverse twist, historically men have found high-earning women intimidating, because they risk losing their role and their power. Up to this point, we follow.
The man earns, the woman cares: is it still like this?
However, talking with friends and acquaintances, something new has emerged. A hint, a spark, which we hope is a good omen for the future. It seems that nowadays men of “marriageable age” (so to speak) are no longer intimidated if a woman is wealthy and ambitious; on the contrary, they are themselves interested in the marry rich idea. Is it true? We asked the numbers.
@sheisapaigeturner Replying to @faq_check you cannot pay your way out of participating in your home and your family. Simply earning more money than your partner doesn’t mean that you’ve earned your way out of doing chores. It’s about our time not about how much we are valued at our paid jobs ##wagegap##motherhoodpenalty##millennialmom##workingmom##chores##domesticlabor##womeninbusiness original sound - Paige
Spousal and partner income gap: men still earn more than women
As reported by the Institute for Family Study and according to a survey by the American Community Survey (ACS) conducted on adults aged 18 to 39 who were recently married or never married, something is changing, albeit slowly. In 2023, 63% of young recently married women earned less than their husbands, 32% earned more than their husbands, and 5% had the same income. Between 2019 and 2023, the majority of women in the four lower income quintiles married men with higher incomes, and 43% of women in the highest quintile married men who earned more than them. In the same period, the income gap between wives and husbands was 31%. In 2009, 66% of women married men who earned more. Husbands earned 40% more than their wives. In 2011, the median income of married women represented 68% of their husbands’ income.
@bonniedilber Married men out earn every other group. #compensation #careertok #paygap #genderinequality #incomeinequality original sound - Bonnie Dilber
According to the Pew Research Center, today 29% of marriages are composed of couples where both spouses earn roughly the same amount. 55% of marriages have a husband who is the primary or sole income earner, and 16% have a breadwinner wife. The share of marriages in which the wife earns as much or more than her husband has tripled over the last 50 years. In 1972, the husband was the primary or sole income earner in 85% of marriages; today the share has dropped to 55%. Wives are the sole earner in 6% of marriages and the primary earner in 10%; in 1972 these percentages were 2% and 3%, respectively.
@guacandpico Reply to @zinfinidy it’s true: successful women scare men @guacandpico #dating #forthegirls #fortheboys #relationship Succession Main Theme (From "Succession") - Geek Music
Choice or circumstances? Hopefully both
These are, of course, data derived from multiple variables, and they do not include people who are only dating, for example, who are harder to track. Just as it is difficult to measure an intention that is changing, a social trend emerging in its very early stages is also hard to capture. There is no denying that in recent years the global economy has changed (some might say worsened), average salaries too, and the money, and thus the income, needed to sustain life as a couple (or a trio, or a family of four, or with pets and a car, or with a mortgage, the combinations are many) is dramatically different. Likewise, expenses, lifestyles, demands, and expectations have changed. However, the gap is narrowing, and how can we not recognize that this is also a matter of intentions, a different attitude toward money and financial literacy, and an increasing acceptance of women’s role in society? All these seeds, if planted in fertile ground, could lead in the near future to couple dynamics that are less blatantly patriarchal, more balanced, and to an approach to money that is perhaps freer and less tied to gender issues.
