female breadwinners face backlash, lack financial agency

The gender pay gap is 84%, but even in the case where women are outearning men, they still face inequity at home.

A new study by UBS Financial Services found that a third of women are the primary earners at home, but only 50% of these women in heterosexual relationships are involved in making financial decisions at home. The study surveyed 809 men and women who had a personal income of $175,000 or more, or had a partner making that amount. Here are the key takeaways:

• Female breadwinners are less likely to decide where their money goes: Only 51% handle the bills compared to 79% of male breadwinners; 44% are involved in day-to-day expenses compared to 57% of male breadwinners; and 52% are involved in long-term investments compared to 83% of male breadwinners.
• They face emotional backlash from themselves: Only 49% of female breadwinners feel comfortable earning more than their partners compared to 87% of male breadwinners. Only 52% feel like it’s natural for them to make financial decisions since they earn the bulk of the money compared to 73% of men in the same situation. Meanwhile, 50% of women say family and friends assume their husbands make more money and they do not correct them.
• And they face emotional backlash from their partners: 51% of men who aren’t breadwinners said they were embarrassed that they earned less, and 56% said the difference in earnings caused tension in their marriage. Meanwhile, 66% of males who aren’t breadwinners said they worried about their spouse’s spending habits, and 62% said they sometimes hold their spouse back from spending money. By contrast, only 22% of women who aren’t breadwinners worry about their spouse’s spending, and only 37% of these women have tried to monitor their spouse’s spending.
• Yet they still juggle more household responsibilities: 55% of breadwinning females said they took on more childcare compared to 31% of male breadwinners, 51% said they did more cooking compared to 31% of males, and 48% said they did more cleaning compared to 34% of males.
• Women in same-sex relationships fare better: 65% of women in same-sex relationships who are the breadwinners say they make financial decisions compared to 52% of female breadwinners in heterosexual relationships and 73% of breadwinning men in heterosexual relationships. Meanwhile, 70% of female breadwinners with a wife felt knowledgeable about investing compared to 53% of breadwinning females married to men and 75% of breadwinning males married to women.

The report’s writers noted: “[When] women breadwinners defer participation in financial decisions, they may be giving up a say in the key considerations that impact their long-term financial goals. Demographic trends bear out that 80% of women will at some point have to manage their finances on their own, so it’s important to be engaged in these decisions at each life stage.”