This story is actually old (relatively speaking) but I wanted the initial media buzz to die off before I started talking about it.
This big story is that more wives are outearning their husbands than ever before. Considering that only 4% of women outearned their husbands in 1970, not increasing this number would have been a bigger surprise.
Recession related activities have no doubt increased the percentage of women out-earning their husbands. This being because blue collar and construction jobs have suffered the most, whereas women work in more stable industries. So when the dudes lose their jobs, their wives start outearning them by default.
So what percentage of wives do you think are outearning their husbands these days. Keep in mind it has to be an amount that would be newsworthy. 50%? 40%? 30%? Nope, just 22% of wives are outearning their husbands these days. No offense ladies, but that just isn’t news.
But fear not friends because I have some actual analysis for this story. Back in 1970 only 4% of women outearned their husbands. A lot of that came down to women not having to work to make ends meet. The men made enough money and many wives stayed at home to raise the family. Perfectly acceptable back then, and today.
However it was in the mid-century that many women started going to work. By the 1980s (and I don’t have any statistics) it was quite common for women to work and no one would have been surprised to see a family where Mom is bringing home the bacon. It wasn’t common, but wasn’t surprising either.
So the women are getting shafted. Sure they are making more and probably have more say-so in the family finances, but at what cost? They used to get to stay at home all day and do all those things you see in 1950s movies and TV shows. That may sounds a bit sexist or some other term that alludes me, but think about the stresses of modern work. You have to worry about getting laid off. Your boss is a jerk. You might get reassigned to an awful place to live. You rely on your income to make ends meet and stress about what will happen if that income were to vanish. I could go on and on, but I’m certain most of the people reading this understand my point.
Women have gotten the short end of the stick. They used to have the option to go to work. Now they basically don’t have a choice. I’m all for women and men doing what they want, but there was once a time when the women had a choice.
Welcome to the world of men ladies, you’ve got the good, but you get the bad and the ugly too.
 By The Weakonomist |
The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice. |
