The surrounding entitlement attached to family breadwinner, changed when it is shifted and the wife becomes the breadwinner, the long dated assumptions that men should assert themselves and take control as the head, will struggle, especially when earning and influence depart from them, and that questions the foundational level of their masculinity. As the world continues to evolve and changing already long established norm, and now outdated assumptions of men as breadwinners, nature of earnings and influence, will struggle to stand the test of time both in family and its acceptability in wider society.
The practicability of a woman as a breadwinner in the society will be a huge blow to the man’s ego and pride, in a world that has become patriarchal and somehow come to the terms to agree that couples in a marriage is somewhat not equal, in the aspect of power and money. Some men are threatened by their wives’ financial exploits especially when they earn above them, often time they tag women who are financial conscious of their environment and ready to live their dreams, as high driven career women with no boundary. Money and power are twin factors, and often time the ultimate decider of influence, and also final decisions reside with it, family might be different as it more like a unit to manage, than wider society with divergent culture and values.
Almost in all cases, for a woman to assume the role of a breadwinner in her family, it must have been due to the lack of job, unable to secure a job, low income that is not meeting up with family needs, from the side of the man. This is because, if the situations are different a good number of woman would prefer that her husband do all the work while they stay at home to take care of the children and other domestic work. Now there is emerging family trend, you can now see stay-at-home dad, while it might be hard pill to swallow, men who assume that role are going through mental challenges, as the mockery attached to it, is unbearable, they suffer twin predicaments of no job and mental health challenges, these are family dynamics that society are still struggling to align with.
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The family dynamics also affect house chores, family roles will different changes, as money lean very close to power. A woman who is the breadwinner of the family will definitely be engaged by the time she gets home, she will be exhausted and will hardly do any house chores, traditionally, as house chores are something very close to women, a stay-at-home dad, will have to assume that role as part of family dynamics, whether it will affect his self-esteem and position as the head of the family, will lean towards how effectively they handle the situation within the family and whether the man possesses that mental muscles to chest the societal pressure and stereotyped situation.
This situation can also occur when couples are employed but the wife earns higher than the husband, this tends to greatly affect domestic work at home, it is through which work is assigned to who, that family hierarchy can be ascertain. A well carved out division of labour will enable the children to understand the dynamics that comes with family, it could be stepping stone for them. While the dominant topic today centre around empowering women, a man with no crowned status of breadwinner, will that he feels he cannot be measured with other men, and that makes him less of a man. And this will continue to hunt him, until situation present itself to change the circumstance.
Over the years men are characterized with tough characters, lack of emotion, and less empathy. As the society continues to evolve, these perspectives changed, which enable them to learn more about themselves and effect the change in others around them. Gender roles have become topical issue, as its sensitivity grows far and wide, everyone is ready to shout inequality on social media at the slightest provocation, female breadwinner could create healthy power balance in the family, that emphasised on importance of teamwork rather than individual player, this trend is somewhere in labyrinth, but the bottom line is that couples should be able to live their dreams, irrespective of whether their partner is threatened by their financial muscle.
