Dec. 11, 2013
Female breadwinning is a reliably inflammatory topic. Earlier this year, when the Pew Research Center published a study showing that mothers are now the sole or primary earners in 40 percent of households with children, an all-male Fox News panel practically spontaneously combusted with anxiety, worrying that men are ceding their natural “dominant” place. On Sunday, the New York Times published a front-page piece about the rise in women bankers with stay-at-home husbands. This time, objections were raised by more progressive observers who argued that these women’s success is hardly to be celebrated; it just means they are giving in to a rotten corporate culture that requires insane work hours.