 Straying from breadwinning: Status and money in men's interpretations of their wives' work arrangementsErin M. Reid Gender, Work and Organization, 2018, vol. 25, issue 6, 718-733 Abstract: The male breadwinner identity is culturally associated with career success for men, particularly in the professions, but today, few married men's lives easily map onto this identity. This study analyses interviews with 42 married men employed in US offices of a consulting firm to examine first, how men construct their identities as spouses in relation to their wives' work arrangements and second, how men navigate straying from the male breadwinner identity. While some men interpreted their wives' work in ways that supported personal claims on the breadwinner identity, others did so in ways that supported a more egalitarian identity, labelled here breadsharer. These groups differed in how they interpreted the social status and financial value of their wives' work, as well as in how they approached their own careers. Breadsharers were aware they strayed from the expected breadwinner identity and crafted alternative claims on status. These findings advance theory on gender, work, family and masculinity. Date: 2018 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:gender:v:25:y:2018:i:6:p:718-733 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Gender, Work and Organization is currently edited by David Knights, Deborah Kerfoot and Ida Sabelis More articles in Gender, Work and Organization from Wiley Blackwell |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.