Abstract
There is growing evidence that couples in non-traditional relationships in which the woman attains higher status than her male partner experience more negative relationship outcomes than traditional couples. A possible reason is that non-traditional couples violate persisting gender stereotypes that prescribe men to be breadwinners and women to be caregivers of the family. In the current study (N = 2,748), we investigated whether a country’s gender-stereotypical culture predicts non-traditional men and women’s relationship and life outcomes. We used the European Sustainable Workforce Survey, which is conducted in nine European countries. Two indicators of countries’ gender-stereotypical culture are used: Gender Empowerment Measure and implicit gender stereotypes. We found that women’s income and -to a lesser extent- education degree relative to their male partner affected outcomes such as relationship quality, negative emotions, and experienced time pressure. Furthermore, men and women living in countries with a traditional gender-stereotypical culture (e.g., Netherlands, Hungary) reported lower relationship quality when women earned more than their partners. Relative income differences did not affect the relationship quality of participants living in egalitarian countries (e.g., Sweden, Finland). Also, couples in which the woman is more highly educated than the man reported higher relationship quality in egalitarian countries, but not in traditional countries. Our findings suggest that dominant beliefs and ideologies in society can hinder or facilitate couples in non-traditional relationships.
Highlights
Non-traditional relationships in which women attain higher societal status than their male partners become more common (Pew Research Center, 2013; Portegijs and Van den Brakel, 2018)
We investigate how a country’s gender-stereotypical culture is related to relationship outcomes of men and women in relationships in which the woman has higher societal status than her male partner
Running the models separately for traditional and egalitarian countries, we found that participants living in traditional countries reported lower relationship quality when they had a relationship in which the woman earns more than her male partner, b = −1.30, SE = 0.31, p < 0.001
Summary
Non-traditional relationships in which women attain higher societal status than their male partners become more common (Pew Research Center, 2013; Portegijs and Van den Brakel, 2018). A relationship in which the woman earns more than the man has become more common in recent years (e.g., almost 12% of Dutch women with young children had a higher income than their male partner in 2018 compared to 7% of Dutch women in 2007; Portegijs and Van den Brakel, 2018). Non-traditional couples face social and economic penalties as they are perceived more negatively by others (Hettinger et al, 2014; MacInnis and Buliga, 2019; Vink et al, 2021b). Women who work more hours than their male partners report lower relationship quality than women in more traditional relationships (Gong, 2007). Some studies even show that marriages in which the woman is more highly educated than the man are at greater risk of divorce than marriages in which the man is more highly educated (Kalmijn, 2003; Müller, 2003; Goldstein and Harknett, 2006)
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