Women Bread Winners?

Culture & Society Forum

well...indeed you did pick a better profession (at the time). And what was the market like when your wife was looking for work?Better yet, how long ago was that?

Today it seems almost the opposite...I was specifically told that when I finally finish my schooling, in the field I chose to concentrate on, and if I go against someone else with the same skills and experience, (the someone else being a man) that I would have the advantage because I am a women....and people are looking to hire women now.....and I basically said I didnt really want to use that as leverage...I feel being hired because of my gender would be really a slap in the face because I have more to offer than gender...and he said to take advantage of it...because thats the way society is evolving.

So...I took it upon myself to look around, wondering if that was actually the case, and its amazing how factually true that statement was...at least I know that in this state.

BUT...I actually ran into a few things today...for example...from El Paso Texas, that had job opportunities listed...the ad read: Wanted woman police officers. Why women? Why not "good" police officers? I can go online and find scholarships for woman only.....grants for women only, etc.

But thats really the point...there are more things being offered to women...to get them better educated, in business, anything to get them equal if not at a higher position than a man....

It must be more than here though...because two of my brothers, one in Oregon, and the other in Los Angeles, state the same thing...however, they have very nice cushy high paying jobs....but they are in their 40's...and have had them for awhile...giving them both the chance to make names for themselves in their chosen field...but I wonder...would it have been the same today if they were out there looking for work? I dont think so....

I think its gonna be coming to the time that women are going to looked upon as more viable in the workforce....if that happens, its certainly will be an "interesting" society......Im not sure that it will a healthy one though.

Breaking New Ground
More American Women Entering Nontraditional Fields of Work

By Carole Simpson


Dec. 29 — Arlene Berger is a registered nurse, but she gave up caring for the sick 10 years ago when she decided to follow her dream to "build things."




"I guess when all the boys were building with their little Tonka toys and everything else and girls couldn't play with them, it was just something I always wanted to do," she said. "I loved putting things together."

Berger, 52, is now the proud owner of "Heavenly Hammers," a home remodeling and repair company in Waterford, Conn. She does everything — carpentry, nailing heavy sheetrock, plastering, painting, putting in plumbing, and electrical wiring.

"At the end of the day, to see your accomplishments and know that you made somebody's life a little easier is worth the hard work," she said.

Berger is an example of a new trend in the U.S. labor force, women conquering fields that had once been denied them. Until as late as the last decade many well-paying, high-status jobs that were widely considered "for men only."

But a five-year study by the Center for Women's Business Research has discovered that the fastest-growing segment of female entrepreneurship is in nontraditional fields for women — construction, manufacturing, transportation and communication. While women owning retail stores, beauty salons, and consulting services increased 37 percent, women owning construction and trucking companies went up 50 percent.

"You can find a woman to do your environmental cleanup," said Sharon Hadary, director of the Research Center. "You can find a woman to engineer, design and build your shopping center. You can find a woman to transport your goods around the world."


Mechanically Inclined, Gender Regardless

What brought about the change? Hadary says it was the recognition that women could be leaders combined with a new attitude by banks. They began issuing bigger lines of credit to women who wanted to start cash-intensive businesses.

Look Who's Bringing Home More Bacon
The American family has something new going for it: The femmes who finance. One in three wives now outearns her husband

A mere month into his relationship with Betsy Morgan, Chad Gifford found himself sitting nervously in her parents' dining room in Suffield, Conn., where the clan had gathered for Easter lunch. "So tell me, Chad," Betsy's banker father began, lowering the boom before the roast was served. "How much does an archaeologist earn?"

Gee, Mr. Morgan, not much. Today, 10 years later, Betsy, 34, and Chad, 36, are a happily married Manhattan couple. Betsy is a CBS executive who makes fat cash. Chad is an archaeologist who jaunts all over the world for digs that barely pay. She buys Prada shoes. He still owns clothes from high school. She burns water. He learned how to wash lettuce from a family friend -- Julia Child. "We joke that I should make Chad a nonprofit," says Betsy.

The American family has something new going for it: the femmes who finance. After only three decades as members of the mainstream workforce, one in three wives now outearns her husband, up from one in five in 1980. Women with MBAs are doing even better: Nearly 60% have direct deposits bigger than their grooms'.

POWER-SHARING. Look for the ranks of the Ms. Breadwinners to rise even more, with 20% more women than men graduating from college and more women swelling the managerial ranks every year. Francine M. Deutsch, a psychology professor who studies gender roles and parenting at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., believes the trend will help erode the mommy tax -- the heavy penalties women pay for having children -- and help ease female poverty in old age.

The shift puts a twist on the term "purse strings." Researchers say the phenomenon is helping restructure marriage by creating mergers of complementary strengths, in which power is shared and spouses act as flexible allies who easily switch back and forth between roles. In essence, the family now has co-CEOs. "I expected to find these women lording it over their husbands," says Barbara Stanny, author of Secrets of Six-Figure Women. Stanny studied 150 women earning $100,000 or more. Nearly 70% earned more than their partners. But even though they raked in more cash--and often managed the family finances--Stanny found that most wanted interdependent relationships. "They all talked about how crucial their husbands were to success," says Stanny.

How well a couple fares depends on how successfully they share childrearing and what their pact was upon marriage. Resentment can flare if the breadwinner role was unexpectedly foisted on the wife by a layoff or sudden failure, says Breadwinner Wives and the Men They Marry author Randi Minetor.

FROM AUDI TO SATURN. One PR executive financed her husband's new restaurant and ended up pleading her case in bankruptcy court with $960,000 of debt attached to her name. She lost the 2,200-square-foot house with the pool and her Audi A6. "I thought supporting his dream would get me to my dream -- to be a stay-at-home mom," she says. Instead, she wound up a Saturn-driving single parent living in a condo with no credit.

Some husbands balk, threatened by their wives' new power. One recent Penn State University study found that men tend to become gloomier and more prone to headaches when their wives begin earning more.

Still, the positives can be considerable if men have strong self-images, feel no need to compete with their wives, and don't have in-laws shaming them for their role. Men with breadwinner wives are often relieved to share the onus, especially given the enormous resources required to raise a family in an era of slippery job security. The role swap allows men to spend more time with their children and pursue passions that a megacareer would prohibit.

Indeed, the more economic power the wife has, the more men help out at home. Minetor found that 51% of men with breadwinner wives are the major housekeepers. Finally, more career women are getting the one thing they say they need most: a wife.

Regarding your response above, in fact it said ONE in three, not TWO in three, a 33% error..

Yeah, I see the stories there, but I have a hard time believing that, and my bet is that their data is skewed as a result of small sampling. If it were truely 1 in 3... wouldn't you think that statistically you'd run into one of those 1 in 3 now and again? I have yet to meet one. I'd be surprised if it was accurate in actuality.

The most interesting bit I saw in the articles you posted was that of banks tending to lend more to woman-owned businesses, and I wonder how wide-spread that phenomenon is as well..