Men’s and women’s aversion to female breadwinning: Linking individual attitudes to macro-level contexts

Despite the increased prevalence of female breadwinning (i.e., marriages in which the wife outearns her husband) across the globe, our understanding of individuals’ attitudes toward such relationships remains limited. Using the seventh wave of the World Values Survey, this study examines how macro-level contexts are related to men’s and women’s aversion to female breadwinning. There are four key findings. First, men, on average, exhibit a greater aversion to female breadwinning compared to women. Second, in countries with greater macro-level gender equality, both men and women are less averse to female breadwinning. Third, in countries with higher rates of men’s unemployment, there is a wider gender gap in aversion to female breadwinning. This trend is primarily driven by men’s heightened aversion to female breadwinning in such countries, which suggests men may respond to economic uncertainty by overemphasizing their roles as primary breadwinners to bolster their endangered masculinity. Fourth, in countries with higher levels of economic development, both men and women are less averse to female breadwinning, resulting in a narrower gender gap. This study highlights the importance of linking individual attitudes toward female breadwinning to macro-level contexts.