Study: Men “Less Satisfied With Life” When Female Partners Make More Money

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For many decades, and perhaps centuries, men were seen as the family “breadwinners,” while women mostly stayed home. Today, these old school stereotypes are more of a thing of the past, as lots of women work outside the home and contribute to the family’s income. But a new study suggests quite a few men struggle to cope when their female partner is the one making more money.

A study of over 42-thousand people in nine countries finds that men’s life satisfaction goes way down when the woman is the breadwinner instead of them.
Men’s well-being is at its lowest when they’re unemployed and their girlfriend or wife is making all the money.
But if the man is the only one bringing in income, or both partners are making money, men are much more satisfied with life. Their well-being is also higher when their female partner is unemployed, as long as they’re making money. So it seems their happiness in life is tied to providing for their family financially.
- “More needs to be done to break the link between breadwinning and masculinity,” study authors explain. “Ultimately, we need to keep challenging the ingrained belief that men should be the breadwinner so that men don’t feel like failures when they can’t meet this expectation.”
Source: Study Finds