New York
CNN
—
Some women will be surprised to learn that even when wives earn as much as their husbands or more, a new study by the Pew Research Center shows that they still spend more time at work. housewives and childcare, while their husbands spend more time in paid work and childcare. free time.
“Even as financial contributions have become more equal in marriage, the way couples divide their time between paid work and home life remains unbalanced,” Pew notes.
So who gets what?
Pew found that in 29% of heterosexual marriages today, women and men earn about the same (about $60,000 each). “Husbands in equal marriages spend about 3.5 hours more per week on leisure activities than wives. Wives in these marriages spend about 2 hours more per week on caregiving than husbands and about 2.5 hours more on housework,” the study noted.
In 55% of heterosexual marriages, men are the main or sole breadwinner in the family, earning an average of $96,000 compared with their wives’ $30,000.
Meanwhile, in 16% of marriages, the wife earns more than her husband as the main breadwinner (10%) or the sole breadwinner (6%). In these marriages, the woman earned an average of $88,000 compared with her husband’s $35,000.
Of all these categories, the only category where men are said to spend more time taking care of their wives is when the woman is the sole breadwinner. And the time each week spent on household chores in those marriages is divided equally between husband and wife.
In any case, that’s a big change from 50 years ago – when the husband was the main breadwinner in 85% of marriages, for example.
Today, which women are most likely to be the main or sole breadwinner in the family can vary by age, family status, education, and race.
For example, Pew found that Black women were “more likely” to earn more than their husbands than other women. For example, 26% of Black women take home more than their husbands, while only 17% of White women and 13% of Hispanic women do.
But Black women with college degrees or higher and few children at home are also among those equally likely to earn as their husbands.
These figures are reported in the context of society’s attitudes about who should earn more and how care should be divided between husband and wife.
Nearly half of Americans (48%) in the Pew survey said husbands prefer making more money than their wives, while 13% said men prefer wives who earn more than they do.
What do women want? 22% of Americans said most women want a husband who earns more, while 26% said most want a man with similar income.
Meanwhile, when it comes to getting married, 77% think that children will be better off when both parents focus on work and childcare. Only 19% said children do better when their mothers are more focused on family life and their fathers are more focused on his work.
The Pew Study draws on three data sources: income data from the US Census Current Census; data from the American Time Use Survey and a nationally representative survey of public attitudes towards 5,152 American adults conducted in January.
