Jenny and I have never been bothered by which one of us is working or which one of us is supporting the other.
I supported her when she was studying for degrees and she supported me when I was unemployed. By the time she retired she was earning much more than me but neither of us saw that as a problem. Certainly I was never ashamed of failing some masculine expectation about working or not working.
Nor did it matter that I spend many years working in humble bookshop or admin jobs for a very modest wage (and thoroughly enjoying them).
But I gather a lot of men are still hung up on the old male breadwinner formula and get quite eaten up if they're not fulfilling their required gender role. And it seems a lot of women are still under pressure not to overshadow their men workwise.
The statistics: in 29 per cent of marriages both spouses earn about the same amount of money. Some 55 per cent of marriages have a husband who is the prime or sole breadwinner and 16 per cent have a breadwinner wife.
So the male breadwinner pattern is a long time dying.
Nick, I think many boys are still educated this way. We have a neighbour , the man is a houseman and his wife works , and the number of negative comments are horrendous. What a shame. Saïd and I are like Jenny and you, when students we were really poor and after when we decided to join Médecins sans frontières it was certainly not for money. Now we are old , have a nice house which we share with refugee families , have a frugal life, still our love and well we are happy. What do we need more ? To judge people for the wages they earn a complete absurd idea.
ReplyDeleteWhat century are we living in ?
Hannah