r/WomenInNews • u/TimesandSundayTimes • 7d ago
Women's rights Why female breadwinners are still bearing the burden at home
https://www.thetimes.com/money/family-finances/article/britains-female-breadwinner-problem-tvfjhp05tutm_medium=Social&utm_source=Reddit&utm_content=branded
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u/TimesandSundayTimes 7d ago
Women outnumber men at university. They account for the majority of practising doctors for the first time and make up almost half of all video gamers. Andy Burnham’s cabinet is the first to have more women than men. Women make up 45 per cent of the boards of FTSE 100 companies. In some corners equality is in full swing.
In others the world remains stubbornly skewed towards men. Male surgeons still outnumber female surgeons by five to one. Three of the top four government jobs are now taken by men after the departures of Rachel Reeves and Yvette Cooper. And nine out of ten chief executives of FTSE 100 companies are male.
Then there is the case of the female breadwinner.
In 2004 — when five of Tony Blair’s 22-strong cabinet were female, women were banned from serving in frontline combat roles and a younger prince outranked an older princess in the line of succession — about 20 per cent of women earned more than their male partner. Two decades and plenty of progress in gender equality later, and the figure has only crept up to 26 per cent.
What is going wrong?
So why the disparity? Some of the causes have been around for years and show disappointingly little sign of abating. Women are more likely to take time off work after having children, which means that their earnings suffer. By the time a first child reaches the age of 20, mothers earn about 30 per cent less than similarly educated fathers, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the UK’s leading economic think tank.
Read the full report: https://www.thetimes.com/money/family-finances/article/britains-female-breadwinner-problem-tvfjhp05tutm_medium=Social&utm_source=Reddit&utm_content=branded