Posted on 02/05/2007 7:28:59 AM PST by qam1
As education and job market patterns shift, more women are becoming breadwinners. Many husbands are fine with that.
Aaron Frazier married his college sweetheart Danielle four years ago knowing that she out-earned him by $10,000 a year. Now, that gap is even bigger.
But even though Aaron's accountant salary today is half the $90,000 his wife makes monitoring clinical drug trials, it still doesn't cause any friction.
"I think both of us are pretty modern," said Danielle, 29, of Antioch, Tenn.
"She does more cooking, and I do more housework," said Aaron, 30, adding that if they had a baby, he would start out being the primary child-care giver.
Couples such as the Fraziers — with the wife bringing home most of the bacon — are becoming increasingly common and accepted among the nation's twenty- and thirtysomethings, the result of shifting education and job market patterns, and new attitudes toward work, family and gender differences.
That could help accelerate the growth in the number of marriages in which women are the sole or primary breadwinners. Census Bureau data show that 25.3% of women in two-income marriages bring home the bigger paycheck, up from 17.8% in 1987.
Younger women, now graduating from college at higher rates than men and aggressively recruited by many employers, are becoming anything but desperate housewives. Some, like Danielle Frazier, out-earn male peers starting with their first jobs.
The salaries of college-educated women have risen much faster than those of male graduates, up 34.4% since 1979 versus 21.7% for men, according to Catalyst, a New York-based research group.
Among twenty- and thirtysomethings, more women than men have college degrees. The gap is widest among 25- to 29-year-olds, according to the Census Bureau, with 25.5% of men holding a bachelor's degree as compared with 32.2% of women.........
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.trb.com ...
That doesn't say good things about your wife.
"That doesn't say good things about your wife."
It is what it is. We all make compromises. On balance, she's a good person, but neither of us is perfect.
But I'm sure your situation is different, there are no shortcomings.
LOL! My wife has been looking a little odd lately, now that you mention it....lousy IT companies....
What's the age spread on you two?
"With rare exceptions, every marriage I've seen where the wife was the primary bread-winner was either bad or ended in divorce."
It comes back to what women think they want versus what they really want. Very few women want a man they can out earn. It's a very primative thing, that's built into us.
When my wife and I were first married, she made more than me and had significantly better benefits.
One day, she asked me if I was upset or threatened by her earning more. My answer: "You'd better earn more than me, or we're in deep doo-doo!"
Personally, I had no problem with it - the more she made, the better.
Postscript: my wife is now a SAHM for our two kids, and I have since promoted to a much better position which gives us the financial ability to do so. God has richly blessed our family.
I would have to agree.
If they're that worried about being manly, they're probably really not.
Shoot, I haven't worried about being manly since my mid 20s.
Count that another man who's truly secure in his manhood. Unlike the whiners.
"it's not "feminism", it's life."
It is now, that's for sure.
7 years.
She's at the casino today, working hard at making money {for someone}.
depends on who you talk to, I suppose. My mother's not a feminist, but she did what she had to do to get where she wanted to go. My father supported her, and they're both happy for it. He's still the head of the household, and we like it that way. This is now, not then. I'm sure, by the flip of a coin, there are women who go on a power-trip because they earn more than their male counterparts. If you're a man that doesn't like the idea of a woman earning more (regardless of her views on life and male/female roles in a relationship), then perhaps you should stay away from women with ambitions for a career.
Agreed. My wife has always made more than me (She is an RN) but that has never made one whit of difference to me. I just don't see how or why it should. Besides...I get to make all the big decisions...Who we should go to war with...how much money should be spent on defense...which officials should be elected, and so on. She makes all the small decisions...she decides what kind of car we buy...when to upgrade the mortgage...when to buy a new roof...when to replace the fence...how much to spend on those things...
I'll second that. Women dominate the workplace these days.
Watch what you say. Women will throw a fit over that. That stuff is supposed to be the hardest job in the world!
My brother-in-law's wife is a nurse. She can make as much in one night as he makes in a week as a corrections officer (maybe slight exaggeration, but close). Her check is usually for the bills and his is for savings or extras.
"Whatever gets us to where we want to go."
You understand what some here don't - it's a partnership, and it's all for the good of the team. If the team members have different goals, that's a problem, whoever's earning the bigger salary.
My husband and I have been married for 20 years with incomes so close to each other that for several years, one pulled ahead of the other with a raise or a job change - first one, then the other. It's only in the last couple of years that my husband has pulled ahead by a sufficient amount (~$15,000) that I'm not likely to catch up. It all goes into joint bank and investment accounts, so who cares?
Wait a second: am I married to you? LOL
My husband sounds much like you do. We would never do something that is unpleasant to the other. It's just unthinkable. And we are just shy of 30 years of marriage. I only went back to full time work about 6 years ago (SAHM) and now, for fun, we challenge each other about things like who did better on the 401K this quarter. No competitive issues other than that.
Then I guess my father and my step mom are the exception. Happily married for 25 years and she makes about 3 times what he does.
Hell I keep buggin him to retire and go fishing.
s/regret/resent/
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