Mothers as the primary family breadwinner

Research for Real Life

Over the last forty years, women have taken on more of the responsibility of contributing to the family income, and, as a recent study indicates, have become increasingly the primary and even sole breadwinners.

A 2010 U.S. report showed that, while men still earn more than women over all, wives are the primary earners in 22 per cent of opposite-sex couples, up from 7 per cent in 1970. In Canada, the trend has been very similar, with various studies conducted between 2006 and 2008 indicating that women are the primary earners in 25 to 30 per cent of families.

Andrea Doucet, professor of sociology at Carleton University, has been researching this demographic shift in family breadwinners for more than 20 years. Bread and Roses and the Kitchen Sink is an online discussion forum she initiated for women from Canada and the United States to share their experiences as breadwinning mothers. It also acts as a research site for her upcoming book on issues around gender and motherhood, the household division of labour, and earning.

Doucet’s project demonstrates that the dynamic of reversing traditional gender roles, with fathers assuming more of the day-to-day caregiver role while women earn more of the family income, is not necessarily an easy one. Men can have a difficult time adjusting to a wife’s equal or greater earning power, and women can struggle with giving up control of the domestic sphere, including childcare and household tasks.

At the same time, role reversal can have positive outcomes in terms of role sharing. Research by sociologists Roderic Beaujot and Zenaida Ravanera of the University of Western Ontario, and Jianye Liu of Lakehead University, found that couples who share the same amount of unpaid household work score higher on measures of overall life satisfaction.

A number of SSHRC-funded researchers are contributing to our understanding of the changing family dynamic and its impact on work-life and work-family balance.

• Roderic Beaujot of The University of Western Ontario is looking at family and work, and different models of earning and caring.
• Gordon Cooke of Memorial University of Newfoundland is conducting a comparative analysis of the effects of non-standard work schedules on employees and their impact on work-family balance.
• Andrea Doucet of Carleton University is researching shifting gender roles across generations and the impact on mothers’ paid and unpaid work.
• Anne H.Gauthier, at the University of Alberta, is examining family functioning and parenting in middle-class families in Canada and the United States.
• Christopher Higgins of The University of Western Ontario (co-applicant Linda Duxbury of Carleton University) is investigating the causes and effects of work-life and work-family balance.

For more information on these or other SSHRC-funded researchers, contact:

Julia Gualtieri
Media Relations Advisor
Tel.: 613-944-4347
Email: julia.gualtieri@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca