Working Woman Penalty: Expert Shares Why Men Are Less Satisfied With Female Partner Earning

Working women struggle throughout the day to slay in the office and keep the household together. But this is not enough because according to the European Sociological Review, men reported feeling less satisfied when their female partner was a breadwinner.

Titled ‘Female-Breadwinner Well-Being Penalty’, the study was published in June 2023 and was based on the analysis of 42,000 responses from people of working age across nine countries. The study had heterosexual couples in which men reported suffering greater distress than females.

Germany topped the list where couples witnessed most struggles in their lives with a female breadwinner in the family. A similar pattern was observed in countries like Finland which has been hailed over time for a greater percentage of gender equality than any other country in the world.

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Helena Kowalewska, an author of the study, wrote that they found working women, especially breadwinning women, in the family carry a greater amount of psychological burden for men, who would rather prefer their partner not to work at all.

When the expert was studying the sample, they took into account factors like the attitude of people towards various genders and income, they found that jobless men were satisfied if their partner was also out of the job.

Kowalewska noted that since being the financial provider for the family has been a role assigned to men by patriarchy, the gradual reversal of more women being appointed in the workforce leads to social judgment and ridicule that can have a lasting impact on a person’s mental health. Because of the gendered roles, unemployment carries a heavier weight for men than women.

The study also noted that in a family where women were sole breadwinners, men were found to be far more distressed and would try to prevent supporting their partner from securing high-end paying jobs.

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Why Men Feel Distressed When Their Female Partners Are Breadwinners?

We connected with Dr Chandni Tugnait, M.D. Alternative Medicines, Psychotherapist, and Founder and Director, Gateway of Healing, to understand why we received such findings in the study. She said, “When a woman becomes the main income earner of the family, it often stirs up complex emotions in both men and women due to long-standing societal norms.”

The expert added that it can make a person question their self-worth, and they might feel inadequate. But the complications are not only for men. If partners feel distressed, it can create a stressful (How Stress Can Affect Your Menstrual Cycle) environment for women, who despite their professional achievements could not be happy about it.

She added that these challenges call for mutual understanding, open communication, and reassessment of traditional roles in our society.

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When women are the sole breadwinner, “It upsets the balance within the family in a society where hegemonic masculinity is dominant,” Dr Tugnait added. When a woman steps into the traditional shoes of a man to be the provider of the family, it leaves the male ego wounded. Men can feel unimportant and meaningless.

The psychotherapist said, “A situation like this would deprive a man of power in a society where male dominance patterns are still prevalent.”

The expert shared the limelight on how it can be stressful for working women. She said that when men cannot support the family, female partners also feel distressed. They near the double burden of juggling between societal pressure, work-life balance, identity struggles and role reversal stress. It leads to the build-up of tension in a relationship.

Dr Tugnait said that while the study is based out of Europe, we are witnessing similar trends in India. The expert added, “This shift is certainly empowering, but it's also sparking some tension within households as it challenges long-standing gender roles. Indian society still has strong patriarchal norms (Internalized Patriarchy That We All Engage In Without Realizing), with men expected to be the main providers and women typically handling household duties.”

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