Brothers are doing it for themselves?: Men's experiences of getting into and getting out of debt

Abstract

Research on debt and gender has typically had an individual focus. In research on households, and the distribution of income within them, studies have typically focussed on women. When it comes to over-indebtedness, women are also more likely than men to seek debt advice. This article reports on a UK study of men and over-indebtedness that focused on the dynamics of couple relationships. The research used in-depth interviews with menin partnerships and living alone after family breakdown to explore how gender relations and gendered identities figure in men's acquisition and management of problematic personal debt, including their orientation towards and experiences of debt advice. It was undertaken when a period of readily available credit and soaring levels of borrowing had been followed by the ‘credit crunch’, when recession had left many families struggling with problematic debt and when debt advice services were coping with increasing levels of demand. In this context, there were some signs that the effects of the recession were leading men to seek debt advice more than had been the case in the past. Findings illustrate the dynamics of male control of household expenditure and the acquisition of problematic debt. They also suggest that when men have sole responsibility for managing incomes constrained by over-indebtedness, they experience the anxiety and depression more typically reported by women; but ‘male pride’ in relation to financial matters that forms a significant component of their identities acts as a barrier to seeking advice.