(A different post on this same topic and drawing these ideas was published on the site Professionelle in April 2013, called “The Unsteady Rise of the Power Mom and the Diapering Dad“)
I have been the sole (or virtually sole) breadwinner for the past eight years of my 11-year marriage. I can happily report that for those eight years, during which we had three children, the arrangement has worked out well enough for both of us that we plan to continue it. Based on Hanna Rosin’s research in her book “The End of Men,” our situation appears to be fairly unique – my husband does the lion’s share of the childcare and all (yes, all) of the housework and cooking. We have never had a nanny or a housekeeper, at his insistence.
That said, as Ms. Rosin said she found, switching traditional gender roles was not as seamless on my end as I thought it would be. This has left me to think that biology has had more of an influence on the childcare part of our labor division than I had anticipated. Continue reading Tales from a Breadwinner With Breasts: The Incomplete Role Reversal