What Does It Mean to Be a “Breadwinner” Mother?

Abstract

Historically, breadwinning is linked to cultural ideologies about masculinity and fatherhood, suggesting contemporary breadwinner mothers confront a gendered cultural ideal. I draw on 42 in-depth interviews with mothers and fathers in 21 couples in which women provide 80% to 100% of the family income to better understand mothers’ breadwinning. Few mothers self-identify as providers; just 38% of women (and their husbands) reported that wives were the family’s primary financial provider. Interviews indicate that while these mothers feel financial pressures similar to those reported by male breadwinners, their experience can also be characterized by the role it plays in undermining husbands’ masculinity and in deepening conflicts between employment and mothering. Overall, while adopting gender-atypical roles may promote change in the direction of greater equality, as when mothers get more serious about paid work or feel accomplishment as a breadwinner, this process is constricted by embedded cultural ideals of mothering and masculinity.

Signs of Change? At‐Home and Breadwinner Parents' Housework and Child‐Care Time

“…These different demographic profiles suggest that it is families that are at greater risk for economic and social disadvantage that are in the gender‐atypical (rather than the gender‐traditional) group. Overall, these demographic patterns are consistent with previous studies that suggest that many families fall into gender‐atypical work–family arrangements as a result of men's job instability rather than out of a strong desire to fulfill gender‐egalitarian ideals (Chesley, , in press; Drago et al, ; Winslow‐Bowe, ). Gender theorists point to periods of economic or social disruption as sites for gender change (Deutsch, ; West & Zimmerman, , ).…”

“…Qualitative research examining contemporary breadwinner mothers' attitudes and experiences underscores that these mothers feel pressure to spend time with children that may be exacerbated by at‐home fathers' heavy engagement in child care (Chesley, , in press). Research also indicates that breadwinner mothers perceive more social judgment about their time with children than they think breadwinner fathers feel or experience (Chesley, in press). Both of these mechanisms could create greater pressures for breadwinner mothers, but not necessarily for breadwinner fathers, to increase their involvement with children when they are not working.…”

“…As a whole, we suspect that patterns in child‐care time across parents in gender‐atypical versus gender‐traditional family types highlight the importance of widely held, gendered parenting norms that still place greater pressure on mothers (whether working or not) than fathers to be heavily involved in the care of their children (Johnston & Swanson, ; Chesley, in press). Although there is evidence that norms favoring greater child‐care involvement on the part of fathers are emerging, pressures on fathers still appear more limited relative to those shaping mothers' involvement (Kaufman, ).…”

Families’ Division of Labor and Social Networks in the 21st Century: Revisiting Elizabeth Bott’s Classic Hypotheses

“…It may be that women can less freely maneuver when they work, take care of their children, or do household chores than men. This would be in line with the finding that women more often prioritize children and the household above other things, while at the same time women often accept the idea that men’s careers are of primary importance ( Chesley, 2017 ; Schrock & Schwalbe, 2009 ). A classic example of this is given by Hochschild and Magung (1989) .…”

Female-Breadwinner Families in Germany: New Gender Roles?

“…Female breadwinning can place the employment and mothering conflict into stark relief and these women may experience a sense that they undermine their husbands' masculinity (Chesley, 2017). We examined from the mothers' perspective the extent to which both parents' subjective gender self-concepts ("woman," "mother"-"man," 'father') and the factual income arrangement ("high-earning woman"-stay-at-home father," "unemployed man," "man in precarious self-employment," "low-earning man") interacted with one another.…”