The (Happy) Female Breadwinner
I recently did a podcast with a woman named Judith Rosenthal who is a successful financial advisor and the sole breadwinner of her family. Media coverage of breadwinner moms tends to focus on the ways in which it can’t work (the husband is emasculated, the wife is resentful), yet this women and her husband have made it work for their family.
The part I found the most interesting is how she essentially has to clamp her hands over her ears to block out the cultural messages that (still) dictate that husbands and wives should adhere to conventional gender roles. If she allows herself to be influenced by stereotypical notions of masculinity and femininity, she might take for granted the evolved family structure that allows her and her husband to have it all.
Cultural messages about gender roles are perhaps more subtle than they used to be, but they are still ubiquitous. We have yet to see a man in a cleaning supply ad, for example. Hopefully Judith’s story (which no website or magazine wanted to publish, not even those run by female magazine editors who are themselves sole breadwinners) will inspire couples to think outside the ads.
