Nearly 40 percent of mothers are now the family breadwinners, report says

[Tayken]

"Nearly 40 percent of mothers are now the family breadwinners, report says"

By Brigid Schulte, Published: May 29, 2013

Nearly 40 percent of mothers are now the family breadwinners, report says - The Washington Post

The report reveals a sweeping change in traditional gender roles and family life over a few short decades: The share of married mothers who out-earn their husbands has nearly quadrupled, from 4 percent in 1960 to 15 percent in 2011.

“The decade of the 2000s witnessed the most rapid change in the percentage of married mothers earning more than their husbands of any decade since 1960,” said Philip Cohen, a University of Maryland sociologist who studies gender and family trends. “This reflects the larger job losses experienced by men at the beginning of the Great Recession. Also, some women decided to work more hours or seek better jobs in response to their husbands’ job loss, potential loss or declining wages.”

Although the trend toward mothers who pull in the biggest part of the family income has been on the rise as more women have become educated and entered the workforce, the recession has accelerated the trend, said Sarah Jane Glynn, an analyst with the Center for American Progress.

There are a lot of headlines on this report in the news today. I just picked one off the top of the pile but, you can search for it on Google News to read all of the headlines.

I guess this puts to rest the negationism that many gender biased organizations attempt to project when re-writing "herstory". Mothers are just as capable of earning a larger income than fathers... Many do and it is a growing trend...

Good Luck!
Tayken

 

[FB_]

The math on the headline is way off.

What did they do add 15% of married women and 25% on single moms to get the "40% of mothers" number. No where in the article did it total the number of single and married mothers who earn more and compare it to the total of single and married mothers who earn less.

That is bad math and is very misleading.

Just my comment...still an interesting article.

 

[FightingForFamily]

My ex wife is the definitely family breadwinner, out-earning me by triple dipping all of her spousal support, child support, government benefits and tax breaks while also working on the side.

That's what the article means, right?

 

[stripes]

FB_ is right. I'd like to see the figures if you take out the single parents (who are the primary breadwinners by definition, and who are mainly [though not entirely] female).

Still, it does point to increasing financial equality within marriages (though not always for the best reasons - some of the trend towards equal incomes is being driven by men's falling incomes, not women's rising ones).

 

[FB_]

FB_ is right. I'd like to see the figures if you take out the single parents (who are the primary breadwinners by definition, and who are mainly [though not entirely] female).

Still, it does point to increasing financial equality within marriages (though not always for the best reasons - some of the trend towards equal incomes is being driven by men's falling incomes, not women's rising ones).

It states that only 15% of married mothers out earn their spouse.

The share of married mothers who out-earn their husbands has nearly quadrupled, from 4 percent in 1960 to 15 percent in 2011.

It then goes on to say

The share of single mothers who are sole providers for their families has tripled, from 7 to 25 percent over the same period.

What does that even mean. If they are single mothers who else would be a provider for their family.

Are these mothers who get no child support from deadbeat dads?

Again very misleading article.

 

[kids1st]

This is great but in family law, women are still living the oppressive life of 17th century. They are totally dependent on their husbands for survival. They are incapable of working because:

- working world is not suitable for working women,

- they are too depressed to look for a job,

- or they are just too pretty to work , or my favourite one

- they are too busy in litigation for spousal support that they have no time for work

Wonder if the increase in number of broken families is somehow correlated to the increase in number of working women? If the rise in crime rate is correlated to rise in number of broken families where the father-figure is missing then what does this report mean?

PS. My ex definitely knows how to win her bread.

 

[FB_]

This is great but in family law, women are still living the oppressive life of 17th century. They are totally dependent on their husbands for survival. They are incapable of working because:

- working world is not suitable for working women,

- they are too depressed to look for a job,

- or they are just too pretty to work , or my favourite one

- they are too busy in litigation for spousal support that they have no time for work

Wonder if the increase in number of broken families is somehow correlated to the increase in number of working women? If the rise in crime rate is correlated to rise in number of broken families where the father-figure is missing then what does this report mean?

PS. My ex definitely knows how to win her bread.

I wouldn't go painting with that brush around here. This goes both ways as many have pointed out here previously.

 

[Tayken]

The report reveals a sweeping change in traditional gender roles and family life over a few short decades: The share of married mothers who out-earn their husbands has nearly quadrupled, from 4 percent in 1960 to 15 percent in 2011.

You have to read the report to get the details of the statistical model they are working on. There are quite a few articles citing this research. Rather than focusing on the "article" why not focus on a wider range of information?

If you don't like the headline, MSNBC uses a similar 40% statistic:

40% of moms are primary breadwinners ? MSNBC

Here is the actual research article that the articles are citing by the way:

Breadwinner Moms | Pew Social & Demographic Trends

It is a rather detailed report. And if you disagree with or have questions about the statistical model, it is all there for you to review in the full report. The appendix is quite detailed.

Good Luck!
Tayken

 

[Tayken]

The math on the headline is way off.

What did they do add 15% of married women and 25% on single moms to get the "40% of mothers" number. No where in the article did it total the number of single and married mothers who earn more and compare it to the total of single and married mothers who earn less.

That is bad math and is very misleading.

Just my comment...still an interesting article.

You can check the math here:

Breadwinner Moms | Pew Social & Demographic Trends

I am currently reading the models and the sample data sizes and sets they are drawing their conclusions from. My first read through is that it is well put together so far. As always with this kind of survey data there is an error ratio. But, the link I have provided answers all your questions FB_ so you can backup your references that the article (and subsequently the research it is citing) is "misleading"...

Good Luck!
Tayken

 

[Janus]

The math on the headline is way off.

What did they do add 15% of married women and 25% on single moms to get the "40% of mothers" number. No where in the article did it total the number of single and married mothers who earn more and compare it to the total of single and married mothers who earn less.

That is bad math and is very misleading.

Just my comment...still an interesting article.

Well, single mothers by definition cannot possibly earn less than the other adults in the household

Since the population in the study is households with children, we can probably safely assume that the number of single families with only a father is probably very close to zero, especially in the states. I'll also disregard same sex couples since the tolerance for that is also fairly low in the states.

So, in 100 households with children:

15 will have a mother who makes more than the father.
60 will have a father who makes more than the mother
25 will have only a mother

Extrapolating even futher (and getting to the point of making numbers up), amongst married households, 80% have a father who earns more.

...or, to put it another way, 80% of men in a household with children have made a terrible terrible mistake, and need to start reducing their income now before it is too late.

 

[FB_]

You can check the math here:

Breadwinner Moms | Pew Social & Demographic Trends

I am currently reading the models and the sample data sizes and sets they are drawing their conclusions from. My first read through is that it is well put together so far. As always with this kind of survey data there is an error ratio. But, the link I have provided answers all your questions FB_ so you can backup your references that the article (and subsequently the research it is citing) is "misleading"...

Good Luck!
Tayken

Thanks I'll take a look.

My point was, and again I have not looked at the numbers, you cannot statistically add a percentage from one subset (15%) to a percentage of another subset (25%) and use that as an accurate statistical number (40%)

 

[dinkyface]

My reading is that the pie (of households with kids <18) breaks down as follows:

25.2% (=63% of 40%) are single moms
14.8% (=37% of 40%) are couples where mom earns more than dad
60% includes single dads and couples where dad earns more than dad

So just looking at the couples, and assuming that the 60% includes maybe 5% single dads (including NCP's?), you have a 14.8 : 55 ratio, i.e. 21% of couples where mom earns more than dad.

Ah ... same #'s as Janus ... but not sure what extrapolation he refers to..

 

[Tayken]

Man I should put more statistical models up on this site. Saves me time on having to break them all down and find the gap in the models.

Thanks everyone!

Tayken