According to the Guardian newspaper, thousands of house-husbands are being dumped by their working wives because childcare isn’t seen as macho enough for them, just not sexy. They resent being the breadwinners and still subconsciously think it is the man who should be bringing in the money and pulling his weight financially. In the UK there are 200,000 men who are house-husbands, and half their marriages are failing.
I guess we just can’t win, us men!
Women, can’t live with them. That is all.
Hi,
The fact that these marriages are failing isn’t necessarily because of gendered expectations. There is emerging work on the structuring of dependency (within the family) and consequent historical divide between the public (state and market) and private (family – including dependency) that is making if very hard, near impossible, for couples to establish equal, or egalitarian arrangements within families after the birth of a child. This claim is backed up by extensive research.
I recommend in particular Eva Feder Kittay, Love’s Labor, and The subject of care, as well as Martha Fineman, The Autonomy Myth, or have a look at the Chicago-Kent Law Review, Vol 76, no. 3, 2001 – excellent overview of themes that are being developed.
best, Joannie
Could you please explain what you mean? For non-academics this is hard to follow.