Female Breadwinners Research Articles

A Statistical Analysis of Attitudinal Changes Towards Female Breadwinners in Wukari Local Government Area

A Statistical Analysis of Attitudinal Changes Towards Female Breadwinners in Wukari Local Government Area

Who brings emissions home? Comparing female and male breadwinner households by matching techniques

This paper tests the hypothesis that female and male breadwinner household present significant differences in the greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions patterns induced by consumption. We investigate this issue by studying a sample of consumption basket of Spanish households for 2008, 2014, and 2018, linking consumption levels with emissions by means of input-output analysis. Once a vector of GHG emissions have been calculated for each household sampled, we apply the Propensity Score Matching estimator to analyze the mean difference between households with female and male breadwinners, finding a significant negative effect of having female breadwinner households on the GHG emissions patterns derived by household energy consumption, mainly due to the larger use of private transport by male breadwinner households. These results contribute to the growing demand for studies linking environment and gender and to expose the role of women in sustainable energy production and consumption. Therefore, policies that encourage the inclusion of women in different economic activities are also likely to have climate related benefits.

Providing During a Pandemic: A Scoping Review of Female Breadwinners

The outbreak of COVID-19 has had negative impacts on many communities across the globe, and, in particular, these impacts have disproportionately affected women. Indeed, preliminary research and reporting on the effects of the pandemic indicate an upsurge of various forms of gender-based inequities in the workplaces and homes of women. In this article, I consider these inequitable effects via the experiences of a particularly vulnerable group of women: female breadwinners. Women who undertake the role as breadwinners overcome traditional notions of gender by becoming breadwinners in their homes and providing primary financial support for their families. By contextualising the lived experiences of female breadwinners through a feminist theoretical framework, we can comprehend their experiences of multiple forms of discrimination and vulnerability, as magnified by COVID-19. Awareness of the challenges faced by female breadwinners, in South Africa and across the globe, encourages gender-sensitive and contextualised interpretations of their experiences during COVID-19. Through a scoping review of recent local and international research, this article exposes the perpetual discriminations of gender in many communities that affected the ability of female breadwinners to provide during the pandemic. In understanding how these women make meaning of and negotiate their roles as breadwinners, this article highlights the literature gap concerning the experiences of female breadwinners during COVID-19. Considering gender-based polyvictimisations amplified by the pandemic, the article further deliberates on recommendations to ameliorate the lived experiences of female breadwinners.

Covid-19: National Lockdowns and Social Distancing Exposes Gender Inequalities in the Market Places of Zimbabwe

The day the earth stood still! This is a title of a western movie production that is pregnant with meaning in as much COVID-19 is concerned. However, this was not a matter of a day as days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months. Lives have been turned upside down for the entire human race. Different economic statuses have also had both negative and positive impact on families the world over. Female breadwinners are facing difficulties in trying to look after families during this COVID-19 environment. The African continent found itself on the receiving end and had to systematically respond to this global pandemic through the announcements of closing borders and lockdowns in a bid to combat the spread of the deadly virus. Several gender policies and instruments have been put in place to create gender responsive environments. It is while implementing these measures that the Zimbabwean societies have realised that the female bread winners are on the losing side as most of their activities are directly affected by the se covid-19 safety measures. It is on this background that this paper is underpinned to demonstrate the vulnerability of the females on the market places. The study which is informed by qualitative research, made use of document analysis. In addition deep structured interviews with female breadwinners. Due to social distancing measures all interviews were conducted online. The paper also put in place recommendations that can be implemented during and after covid-19 period, so that there is gender equity in the market places.

The reality of empowering female breadwinners in Libyan society: A field study on a sample of female breadwinners in the city of Uwjilh

تستهدف هذه الدراسة التعرف على واقع تمكين المرأة المعيلة في المجتمع الليبي معرفيا واجتماعيا واقتصاديا، وتعتمد على المنهج الوصفي، من خلال وصف واقع تمكين المرأة المعيلة بمنطقة أوجلة، لعينة من النساء المعيلات بالمنطقة والبالغ عددهن 80 امرأة معيلة على اختلاف الحالة الاجتماعية لهنَّ، ونظراً إلى تجانس مفردات مجتمع الدراسة اختيرت منه عينة العشوائية قصدية عددها(20) امرأة معيلة بنسبة التمثيل (25%)، كما أن هذه الدراسة تعتمد على استمارة المقابلة أداة لجمع البيانات، وتوصلت الدراسة إلى عدة نتائج من أهمها أن المرأة المعيلة لم تُمكَّن معرفياً؛ وذلك لقلة مشاركتها في الدورات وورش العمل، وعدم قدرتها على استكمال تعليمها بسبب الزواج المبكر في المجتمعات القروية، وتوصلت النتائج أيضا إلى أن المرأة المعيلة لم تتمكن اجتماعيا بسبب عدة تحديات من أهمها نظرة المجتمع الدونية للمرأة المعيلة وشعورها بالنقص، بالإضافة إلى انخفاض مشاركتها في المجتمع وأن مشاركتها غير ذي جدوى، وصعوبة التواصل مع أفراد المجتمع بسبب ضيق الوقت وانغماسها في حل مشكلات الأسرة، كما أظهرت النتائج عدم تمكن المرأة المعيلة اقتصاديا لانخفاض متوسط الدخل الشهري للأسرة وانخفاض قيمة المعاش، وعدم كفايته لسد احتياجات الأسرة، وغلاء الأسعار وعدم مناسبتها لدخل الأسرة المعيلة.

Female breadwinners need different types of Entrepreneurship training for better job opportunities (case study).

Female breadwinners need different types of Entrepreneurship training for better job opportunities (case study).

Female breadwinning and domestic abuse: evidence from Australia

We explore the relationship between heterosexual partners’ relative income and the incidence of both domestic violence and emotional abuse. Using Australian data drawn from society-wide surveys, we find women who earn more than their male partners are subject to a 33% increase in partner violence and a 20% increase in emotional abuse compared to mean levels. We show the relationship between relative spouse income and female partner abuse is best modelled by a binary variable that captures “female breadwinning.” This finding differs from those of some earlier studies that considered only serious abuse and found a continuous negative relationship between female partners’ relative income and abuse. Instead, our findings suggest a mechanism related to gender norms generating domestic violence. We find no link between relative income and abuse of male partners.

The ambivalent trajectory of the German gender regime: Are female breadwinner families an indicator of a shift towards a public gender regime?

There seems to be some evidence that Germany is turning from being a ‘domestic’ to a ‘public’ gender regime. The extension of public childcare, increasing female labour market participation rates and the introduction of gender quotas, among other changes, point to this development. However, a detailed analysis reveals an ambivalent and even contradictory trajectory. This development can only be understood by applying an intersectional perspective and looking at families with different socioeconomic backgrounds, class, and gender. By focusing on family households in which women are the main earners, this paper illustrates changes and stability in different domains and contributes to the understanding of the German gender regime's trajectory. On the basis of a qualitative study conducted in West and East Germany, the article shows that many women who are the main breadwinners in their families are in this position not because of modernised gender relations and by their own choice, but ‘involuntarily’, because of their partners' weak labour market position and increasing pressure within the German welfare state to earn their own living and contribute to covering the needs of the household through gainful employment. Many female-breadwinner families do not live reversed, modernised gender roles, but face an above-average risk for poverty and have little room for manoeuvre. Political and economic factors, as well as norms (in the domains of polity, economy and civil society), help to explain these findings. We see mainly neoliberal, activation policies directed at households with low resources, whereas the institutional framework for households with higher incomes has remained relatively stable. The results of the study show that dual-earner households are not necessarily progressive and dual earning is a poor indicator of a gender regime change.

How much his or her job loss influences fertility: A couple approach

AbstractObjectiveWe analyze the effect of job loss on couple's fertility within 5 years, in the United Kingdom and Germany. We contribute to the literature by assessing to what extent a man's and a woman's job loss is consequential. Further, we study the effects based on couples' income, earnings division between partners, parental status, and women's age.BackgroundA job loss may decrease the couple's fertility as a drop in resources reduces parents' investments to devote to a newborn—or it may increase the risk of a new birth because a job loss reduces the opportunity cost of a birth, especially if the woman loses her job.MethodWe analyze couples from large population‐representative panel surveys in Germany (N = 15,029) and the United Kingdom (N = 15,932) containing yearly information about employment, relationship status, and fertility histories. We carry out estimates with linear probability models and inverse probability weighting methods.ResultsOur results show that men's and, to a large extent, women's job loss negatively affects the chances of birth, especially in the United Kingdom. The subgroups mostly hit are income‐egalitarian/female breadwinner and childless couples, with women in their mid‐20 s up to late 30 s in the United Kingdom; income‐egalitarian/male‐breadwinner families, with 35‐year to 40‐year‐old women and one child in Germany; middle‐income couples are relatively more affected in both countries.ConclusionA job loss makes couples less likely to have a child, particularly if the affected partner is a woman. The income effect jointly with other “unemployment scars” likely prevails on the reduction of opportunity costs of job loss.

The Pearl Hunter by Miya T. Beck

Reviewed by: The Pearl Hunter by Miya T. Beck Fiona Hartley-Kroeger Beck, Miya T. The Pearl Hunter. Balzer + Bray, 2023 [320p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780063238190 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780063238213 $9.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 4-7 Kai and her twin sister Kishi come from a family tradition of pearl divers, female breadwinners who take pride in their strength and independence despite their low [End Page 148] social status. When a bakekujira (ghost whale) snatches Kishi away mid-dive, Kai is determined to save her sister before Kishi’s soul enters the afterlife, even if that means accepting the aid of the Dragon King, bargaining with the sea goddess Benzaiten, escaping a warlord, and (somehow) getting the fox queen Dakini’s magical pearl. An unpleasant episode with bandits yields a new friend (and maybe more) in the kind, horse-savvy boy Ren, and Kai begins to explore who she is without her twin even as she fights to get her back. While the uneven pacing sometimes makes for a choppy narrative, the elegant prose is descriptive, and the fictional world, inspired by eleventh-century Japan, is rich with Japanese myths and legends. There’s broad fantasy appeal here, but the book will especially find an audience with fans of Erin Entrada Kelly and Grace Lin. The text is supported by a note on historical and folkloric sources and a thoughtful glossary. Copyright © 2022 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Parenthood and the gender division of labour across the income distribution:: the relative importance of relative earnings.

This study employs a gendered relative resource approach to examine whether the importance of relative resources in shaping changes in the gender division of labor after first birth varies by couples' household income. A substantial body of scholarship has argued that the gender division of labor within different-sex couples is influenced by partners' relative resources. However, couples face class-based constraints that may alter the relevance of relative resources in shaping changes in gender divisions of labor following the transition to parenthood. This study compares couples' divisions of paid work and housework before and up to four years after first birth, using 28 waves of the British Household Panel Survey and the UK Household Longitudinal Study (N = 1,606 couples). I find that the effect of relative resources on changes in couple's paid work and housework behavior after first birth varies substantially by household income. Among higher-income couples, women's paid work and housework time changes less among those with high relative earnings and more among those with low relative earnings, while men's time allocation varies little after first birth. By contrast, among low-income couples, after first birth women's paid work time and share decreases most among female breadwinners while their male partners' paid work time increases substantially. These findings reflect the greater constraints that low-income couples face in making decisions about the division of household labor after first birth and highlight the need for greater attention to class interactions in the process of gender specialization in both research and work-family policy.

Impact of COVID 19 on livelihoods of female entrepreneurs in Marondera urban

Urban livelihoods in Zimbabwe were heavily impacted by the emergence of COVID-19 which was accompanied by several lockdown measures which suffocated the livelihood strategies among the low-income group of the economy. This situation is more pronounced in the high-density suburbs where most female breadwinners are employed in the informal sector. COVID-19-induced lockdowns aggravated the potential of small-scale female entrepreneurial projects to cushion the affected families, forcing them to skip meals, default on rental and user fees payment to the city council as well as fail to meet medical bills among other livelihood outcomes. Using the sustainable livelihood framework, this study foregrounds that the advent of COVID-19 in Marondera urban stifled the sustainability of female entrepreneurial projects. Amongst the 12 respondents who were purposively selected to participate in this study, findings reveal that 80% of the projects collapsed due COVID-19 restrictions. The study therefore recommends that the government and other non-state actors should introduce safety net measures to enable the affected entrepreneurs to recover their lost income.

Community action Programs and Empowering Female Breadwinners in The Local Community

Community action Programs and Empowering Female Breadwinners in The Local Community

Working mothers in East and West Germany: a cluster analysis using a three-stage approach

PurposeThe second Frankfurt Career Study was conducted in 2017 in East and West Germany to analyze the impact of motherhood on female professional advancement in the specific national context of Germany. In addition, this study aims to present a unique perspective of the similarities and dissimilarities between the Western and Eastern parts of the country.Design/methodology/approachThe research is presented as a three-stage statistical approach based on quantitative data generated from a survey conducted among 2,130 working mothers. In the first step, the authors performed a multiple correspondence analysis to explore the relationships between important categorical variables. Using the object scores obtained in the first step, we then ran a hierarchical cluster analysis, followed by the third and last step: using the k-means clustering method to partition the survey respondents into groups.FindingsThe authors found that working mothers in Germany are distributed according to four clusters mainly described by demographics and orientation toward work. East Germany has been found as a more egalitarian context than West Germany with respect to family system arrangements. However, the upper bound of the sample in West Germany presented an atypical female breadwinner model in high-performance households.Originality/valueThe authors want to contribute to previous investigations on the topic by providing a more comprehensive view of the phenomenon, especially comparing the two different family systems and social norms from the Eastern and Western parts of the country. The authors ask whether and how career perspectives and female labor supply are influenced by drivers such as work–family conflict determinants, working mothers demographics, partner support and employer support.

The effectiveness of a vocational guidance program to improve vocational awareness toward handicrafts and their impact on the attitude toward life among female breadwinners in charitable associations in Najran

The current study aimed to explore the effectiveness of a vocational guidance program in improving vocational awareness toward handicrafts among female breadwinners. Also, it aimed to understand the impact of the vocational guidance program on the attitude toward life among female breadwinners as well as community service through training on handicrafts. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researchers used the scale of vocational awareness toward handicrafts (prepared by the researchers), and the scale of attitude towards life (Ma’shi, 2018). The questionnaires were applied to a sample of (15) female breadwinners who benefit from the services of the Social Development Association in Najran. The data were statistically processed using the Z-value test and Wilcoxon test. The results indicated that there were statistically significant differences in favor of the posttest after implementing the program both at the level of vocational awareness or attitude towards life. The study recommended directing workers in charitable associations like social development associations to benefit from and support the program used in the study to expand its implementation in all charitable associations. Also, there is a need to pay attention to handicrafts to develop the skills of community members and help them enter the labor market as productive individuals for their families and society and the optimal investment for community development associations. This can be achieved through holding seminars, training courses and awareness programs that aim to positively move toward community development. 

Female Breadwinners, Money and Shame: How Financial Planners Can Help

Women who earn more than their male spouses, in a heterosexual relationship, are a growing underrepresented group. Some female breadwinners feel shame related to the reversal of traditional gender roles. These feelings of shame can interfere with the financial planning process. Five interventions are provided as examples of how financial planners, financial therapists, or financial counselors and other financial professionals can help female breadwinners with shame issues. Whether a planner uses one of these interventions, some other intervention, or no intervention at all will depend on their training and level of competence. Using an intervention can help a female breadwinner deal with shame and progress in the financial planning process.

(Un)doing gender in female breadwinner households: Gender relations and structural change

AbstractThe paper explores working class couples' experiences of female‐breadwinning during the Great Recession in Spain. It examines the extent to which couples' adaptations to these gender‐atypical work‐family arrangements have led to processes of (un)doing gender. The study is based on the analysis of 24 semi‐structured biographical interviews and life history calendars with men and women in 12 heterosexual couples who have gone through different breadwinning statuses during their trajectory. Findings show that men whose partners were primary breadwinners for a period make the greatest effort to preserve the male‐breadwinner illusion. In contrast, female breadwinners identify with a co‐breadwinner model and do not understate their own economic contribution. Men's insufficient participation in housework and child care is experienced by women with disapproval, which turns into open conflict when the women perform the bulk of such work. The paper concludes that adaptation to unconventional arrangements can constitute a catalyst for processes that undo gender, but more qualitative longitudinal research is needed to determine how economistic and normative factors interact dynamically across different countries and social groups in shaping these processes.

The perceptions of female breadwinner parents regarding their children’s distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic

Covid-19 has affected the everyday educational lives of students, teachers, administrators, and parents. Parents who are living in low-income and disadvantaged communities are probably more likely than others to have been affected by the pandemic in relation to their children’s distance learning. This study focused on the perceptions, predictions, and suggestions of female breadwinner parents from low-income families regarding their children’s distance learning. Data were collected from 12 mothers who participated in a three-stage focus group study. The data from the focus group discussions were thematically analyzed into three categories: (1) financial issues, (2) social and cultural issues, and (3) educational issues. Additionally, the findings presented the breadwinners’ general and technological reasons for their predictions for enhancing education in the future if schools return to face-to-face learning or pursue a blended learning approach. The breadwinners suggested three approaches to teaching and learning for the following academic year. The findings of this study may be useful in the development of educational policies and training programs to provide essential social and technological support to low-income families to address their needs in the online learning environment and to improve digital equity for low-income families who are likely to be educationally disadvantaged.

Women's Income-Generating Activities and Gender Roles in Rural Households in Mayo Danay Division, Northern Cameroon

In sub-Saharan Africa, women participate in the rural labor market where they are present in subsistence agro-pastoral activities, which are more domestic work and, in other income-generating rural activities such as trading. Within the studies carried out on women’s status in communities, those on women's access to income-generating activities in certain contexts such as Ghanaian urban areas, have revealed that, income-generating activities contribute to a redistribution of gender roles in households. This paper by questioning the impacts of women's economic activities on gender relations within households in rural areas of Northern Cameroon, aims to analyse the realities faced by women involved in income-generating activities in a particular rural area to assess if the changes mentioned above happened in all communities. The data used for this work are empirical data from a qualitative survey of 48 women living in 8 villages in Mayo Danay, an administrative territory in Northern Cameroon. The results of this survey reveal that rural women involved in income-generating activities are both breadwinners and domestic workers. Contrary to what was observed in Ghana, the status of female breadwinners does not participate in the emancipation of women. Indeed, even with their means of production, women are still dependent on men and are still alone to bear the burden of the domestic work. Access of women to income-generating activities and their participation in household expenditures have surely reduced poverty in households but have not contributed to gender roles changes.

Female Breadwinner: More Egalitarian Couples? An International Comparison

Female Breadwinner: More Egalitarian Couples? An International Comparison