The Mulroney Institute, Political Science Department, and the GAP Lab Present
Who Cares Who Brings Home the Bacon?: Women’s Work, Marriage Inequality, and Political Attitudes
Amanda Bittner, Political Science Department
Director, Gender & Politics Lab
Memorial University
Moderator: Rebecca Wallace, Political Science Department/PGOV
Mila Mulroney Chair in Women & Politics
Director, GAP Lab
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
4:00 pm–5:30 pm
Mulroney Hall 4032
The marital economic theory of specialization (Becker, Landes, & Michael, 1977) has been prominent around the world, with husbands more likely to participate in the labour market, and wives more likely to be in domestic roles, staying at home or working part-time, and the incomes of men and women tend to correspond with this division of labour. In recent decades, however, patterns are changing, as women are both increasingly present in the workforce and also taking high-status jobs. For many couples, the wives’ job status exceeds that of the husbands’. Scholars have begun to assess the impact of unequal job status in marriages on marital instability (Byrne & Barling 2016), workplace attitudes (Desai, Chugh, & Brief 2014), and overall well-being (Sandberg et al. 2013), but scant attention has been paid to the impact that job-status inequality in marriages may have on political attitudes.
Scholars have focused on the gender gap in political attitudes and behaviours (Box-Steffensmeier et al. 2004; Conover & Sapiro 1993) and have noted that not all women hold the same attitudes (Bittner & Goodyear-Grant 2017), and that there are differences in attitudes among women (and men) depending on partisanship (e.g., Lizotte 2017) and race (e.g., Holman & Schneider 2018). This talk will discuss understanding the extent to which job status inequality in marriage influences political attitudes and behaviours, relying on data from the most recent wave of the World Values Survey (2010–14). Dr. Bittner has found evidence of gendered breadwinning power dynamics: Women and men do not hold the same political attitudes, and the data suggest that breadwinning wives are penalized in the home. Male breadwinners’ attitudes reflect a high level of status and privilege, while the attitudes of breadwinning wives, lower-earning husbands, and lower-earning wives do not.
All are welcome.
