For richer, for poorer
New analysis of government figures by Pew Research Center reveals that women in opposite-sex marriages are increasingly earning more than, or the same as, their husbands.
The study found that men are now the sole or primary earners in just 55% of American marriages compared to 85% in 1972, with a large portion of those households now “egalitarian” — marriages where the husband and wife each account for 40-60% of the household’s total income.
Breadwinners
One of the more notable findings from the study is that 16% of opposite-sex marriages now have the wife as the primary or sole breadwinner. That’s a proportion that has more than tripled in the last 50 years, but was actually a slight drop on the equivalent study from 2012.
The rise of wives as breadwinners is unsurprising in the context of wider societal shifts in America, as the female share of overall income in North America continues to rise, and women now account for nearly 60% of college students across the country. However, while their share of marital earnings is on the up, Pew Research also found that women are still doing the larger share of work around the home too, spending ~2 more hours a week on caregiving responsibilities and more than double the amount of time on housework.
