Do You Know What A Breadwoman Is?

I'd never heard the term breadwoman before I read the NYTimes book review of The Richer Sex by Liza Mundy. I've grown to laugh with it as a shortened version of female breadwinners. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "wives are breadwinners or co-earners in about two-thirds of American marriages". Of course we also know that marriage is a shrinking institution and many income producing single women choose to have kids on their own; needing only a sperm donation not money.

Questions came to mind!

• Does more money brought home equal more power in many relationships?
• Is this a seismic change that will alter the culture for centuries like global climate change?
• Do men feel emasculated when women make more money than they?
• Are women overly concerned that men will feel emasculated — and thus men will look for a less powerful sweetie on the side?
• What are the causes of this apparent change in economic coupling?
• What are the unintended consequences in the business world?
• Will women increase practice of some of the egotistical, greedy, and devious behavior that men, with power and bucks, have engaged in over the decades?
• How will the relationship between women and men change when the coin(s) of the realm change? Who needs/wants what from each other?
• Will money and the power that comes with it finally get women to stop negative self-talk? Will they take credit graciously for their skills and accomplishments?

H-m-m-m. Makes me think. I have been in two very different relationships with men where I made more money. Neither partner seemed bothered in the slightest. What about you?