Becoming a Female‐Breadwinner Household in Australia: Changes in Relationship Satisfaction

Objective
This study longitudinally investigated the associations between becoming a female‐breadwinner household and changes in relationship satisfaction for men and women.

Background
Female‐breadwinner households pose a fundamental challenge to gender norms, particularly in countries such as Australia with a strong male breadwinner culture. Despite an increase in their prevalence, the implications for relationship satisfaction is understudied. Hypotheses were formulated based on specialization, relative resource, role collaboration, and doing gender theories.

Method
A total of 17 waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia household panel survey (76,866 observations, 11,986 people) and fixed effects models were used to study the associations between changes in breadwinner arrangements and relationship satisfaction. Building on previous research our breadwinner typology combined employment and income differences between partners, differentiating single earners from dual earners.

Results
Both men and women became less satisfied when they transitioned to dual‐earner households where women out‐earned their partners. Becoming a female‐breadwinner household due to male unemployment or illness decreased relationship satisfaction for women. Respondents were most satisfied when they were in male‐breadwinner, female‐homemaker households. For women, but not men, gender role attitudes influenced some of these associations.

Conclusion
The results extend our understanding of the consequences of the increasing prevalence of female‐breadwinner households and suggest that they may be contributing to lower relationship quality and stability.