If you make more money than your husband, feelings of insecurity could take their toll on his sexual health and overall wellbeing. This is according to researchers from Washington University in St Louis’ Olin Business School, who found that men are more likely to experience problems with erectile dysfunction and other forms of mental and physical anguish as a result of his female counterpart being the primary breadwinner.
Olin Business School professor Lamar Pierce, and Michael S. Dahl of Aalborg University in Denmark, explained, ‘Male sexual desire and behaviour is tied to cultural and social factors such as patriarchy and money, potentially causing men to suffer reduced sexual desire or dysfunction when perceiving their traditional role of provider to be usurped. In fact, the medical literature has shown that anger and frustration can lead to serious sexual problems such as erectile dysfunction (ED), a problem also linked to unemployment and decreasing household income.’
Pierce added, ‘There is a powerful social norm for many men that it’s important to make more than their wives and, essentially, when that social norm is violated, what this does is make them feel emasculated.’ However, your wellness may also suffer as a result of you making more money, as the research found that the female breadwinner also has problems with insomnia and anxiety, and husbands of female breadwinners are more likely to cheat in order to reassert their masculinity.
Kim Parker, associate director with the Pew Social & Demographic Trends Project, commented, ‘This change is just another milestone in the dramatic transformation we have seen in family structure and family dynamics over the past 50 years or so. Women’s roles have changed, marriage rates have declined – the family looks a lot different than it used to. The rise of breadwinner mums highlights the fact that, not only are more mothers balancing work and family these days, but the economic contributions mothers are making to their households have grown immensely.’
However, according to Andrew Cherlin, a professor of sociology and public policy at Johns Hopkins University, ‘Many of our workplaces and schools still follow a male-breadwinner model, assuming that the wives are at home to take care of child care needs. Until we realise that the breadwinner-homemaker marriage will never again be the norm, we won’t provide working parents with the support they need.’
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