Women's Stress as Sole Breadwinners

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Mise and Mack has done some work on female breadwinners. They said that they experienced quite a bit of pressure as the sole breadwinner. But for women, they didn't feel that way because they felt the pressure to also be a good wife or a mother. And so again, really interesting that those findings are mixed but I think it opens the opportunity for more discussion if nothing else.

Women are increasingly supporting our families financially. It can feel empowering to be the sole or primary earner, but many of us feel pressure to be both an ideal worker and an ideal mother. We hear from a woman who supports a stay-at-home husband and three sons.

Then, Alyson Byrne, an expert on status and gender, fills us in about the research on women as financial providers — for example, the more we financially contribute, the better our psychological well-being. (Yay.) She has tips on managing the professional side and the personal side of being the chief breadwinner. And Maureen Hoch, Women at Work’s supervising editor, shares her experience of being her family’s primary earner.

Our HBR reading list:

“Does a Woman’s High-Status Career Hurt Her Marriage? Not If Her Husband Does the Laundry,” by Alyson Byrne and Julian Barling

“Whether a Husband Identifies as a Breadwinner Depends on Whether He Respects His Wife’s Career — Not on How Much She Earns,” by Erin Reid

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Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.