IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v25y2018i6p718-733.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Straying from breadwinning: Status and money in men's interpretations of their wives' work arrangements

Author

Listed:
  • Erin M. Reid

Abstract

The male breadwinner identity is culturally associated with career success for men, particularly in the professions, but today, few married men's lives easily map onto this identity. This study analyses interviews with 42 married men employed in US offices of a consulting firm to examine first, how men construct their identities as spouses in relation to their wives' work arrangements and second, how men navigate straying from the male breadwinner identity. While some men interpreted their wives' work in ways that supported personal claims on the breadwinner identity, others did so in ways that supported a more egalitarian identity, labelled here breadsharer. These groups differed in how they interpreted the social status and financial value of their wives' work, as well as in how they approached their own careers. Breadsharers were aware they strayed from the expected breadwinner identity and crafted alternative claims on status. These findings advance theory on gender, work, family and masculinity.

Suggested Citation

  • Erin M. Reid, 2018. "Straying from breadwinning: Status and money in men's interpretations of their wives' work arrangements," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(6), pages 718-733, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:25:y:2018:i:6:p:718-733
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12265
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12265
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.12265?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kathleen L. McGinn & Katherine L. Milkman, 2013. "Looking Up and Looking Out: Career Mobility Effects of Demographic Similarity Among Professionals," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(4), pages 1041-1060, August.
    2. Tsedal B. Neeley, 2013. "Language Matters: Status Loss and Achieved Status Distinctions in Global Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 476-497, April.
    3. Birgitta Rabe, 2011. "Dual-earner migration. Earnings gains, employment and self-selection," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(2), pages 477-497, April.
    4. Erin Reid, 2015. "Embracing, Passing, Revealing, and the Ideal Worker Image: How People Navigate Expected and Experienced Professional Identities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(4), pages 997-1017, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alicia Eads & Laura Tach & Lauren Griffin, 2023. "Intra-household Financial Inequality, Gender Equality, and Marital Dissolution," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 373-393, June.
    2. Reece Garcia, 2022. "Steely determination? Constructions of masculinity in a former UK steelworker community," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 1025-1040, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Isabel Fernandez-Mateo & Sarah Kaplan, 2018. "Gender and Organization Science: Introduction to a Virtual Special Issue," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(6), pages 1229-1236, December.
    2. Jennifer Roberts & Karl Taylor, 2017. "Intra-household commuting choices and local labour markets," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 69(3), pages 734-757.
    3. Amy Church-Morel & A. Bartel-Radic, 2014. ""Not all multilingual teams are created equal " : Conceptualizing language diversity management," Post-Print halshs-01185822, HAL.
    4. Sophie Hennekam & Subramaniam Ananthram, 2020. "Involuntary and voluntary demotion: employee reactions and outcomes," Post-Print hal-03232764, HAL.
    5. Martin Junge & Martin D. Munk & Panu Poutvaara, 2013. "International Migration of Couples," Norface Discussion Paper Series 2013018, Norface Research Programme on Migration, Department of Economics, University College London.
    6. Vanessa Conzon & Ruthanne Huising, 2024. "Devoted but Disconnected : Managing Role Conflict Through Interactional Control," Post-Print hal-04553331, HAL.
    7. Foged, Mette, 2016. "Family migration and relative earnings potentials," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 87-100.
    8. Vera Rocha & Mirjam van Praag, 2020. "Mind the gap: The role of gender in entrepreneurial career choice and social influence by founders," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 841-866, May.
    9. Peltokorpi, Vesa, 2015. "Corporate Language Proficiency and Reverse Knowledge Transfer in Multinational Corporations: Interactive Effects of Communication Media Richness and Commitment to Headquarters," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 49-62.
    10. Aichhorn, Nathalie & Puck, Jonas, 2017. "Bridging the language gap in multinational companies: Language strategies and the notion of company-speak," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 386-403.
    11. Lauring, Jakob & Klitmøller, Anders, 2015. "Corporate language-based communication avoidance in MNCs: A multi-sited ethnography approach," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 46-55.
    12. Itani, Sami & Järlström, Maria & Piekkari, Rebecca, 2015. "The meaning of language skills for career mobility in the new career landscape," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 368-378.
    13. Diemo Urbig & Katrin Muehlfeld & Vivien Procher & Arjen Witteloostuijn, 2020. "Strategic Decision-Making in a Global Context: The Comprehension Effect of Foreign Language Use on Cooperation," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 351-385, June.
    14. Constant, Amelie F. & Krause-Pilatus, Annabelle & Rinne, Ulf & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2010. "Economic Preferences and Attitudes of the Unemployed: Are Natives and Second Generation Migrants Alike?," IZA Discussion Papers 5380, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Meir Russ, 2017. "The Trifurcation of the Labor Markets in the Networked, Knowledge-Driven, Global Economy," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 8(2), pages 672-703, June.
    16. Ahmad, Farhan & Barner-Rasmussen, Wilhelm, 2019. "False foe? When and how code switching practices can support knowledge sharing in multinational corporations," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 1-1.
    17. Elaine Burns & Susanne Gannon & Heather Pierce & Sky Hugman, 2022. "Corporeal generosity: Breastfeeding bodies and female‐dominated workplaces," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 778-799, May.
    18. Mathias, Blake D. & Williams, David W., 2018. "Giving up the hats? Entrepreneurs' role transitions and venture growth," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 261-277.
    19. Arnett, Rachel D. & Sidanius, Jim, 2018. "Sacrificing status for social harmony: Concealing relatively high status identities from one’s peers," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 108-126.
    20. B. Sebastian Reiche & Tsedal B. Neeley, 2019. "Head, Heart, or Hands: How Do Employees Respond to a Radical Global Language Change over Time?," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(6), pages 1252-1269, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:25:y:2018:i:6:p:718-733. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing or Christopher F. Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.