HONEY I'M HOME!
– The Rise Of The Female Breadwinner

WORDS: Liv Morgan

More and more breadwinners are walking in heels, according to the 2011 Pfizer Health Index. Today, slightly more than a third (36%) of working women are the sole earners for their household, which in turn is putting them under increasing financial pressure.

Understandably, the recession has had a part to play with job losses, pay cuts and reduced working hours, but what of the couples who choose to reverse the stereotype consciously? WMB talks to the beta men who prefer to be the primary nurturers and the alpha women who strive to reach the pinnacle of their career ambitions.

Straight-talking Ernst & Young marketeer Maria Macklin is not one to mince her words. The mother-of-four returned to Ireland from London in 2004. It was at this time that she and husband Gordon decided to change their work set up; with Maria continuing to work fulltime, and Gordon parttime, running his database development company and pursuing writing, while minding the children.

"He's not career ambitious" she says matter of factly. "It was a conscious decision on both our parts for Gordon to be at home. We came back from London in 2004 as I moved position within Accenture to the Ireland lead marketing role. At that time Gordon was an IT contractor with JP Morgan. He negotiated his role to two days a week from Dublin at that time, as we had only two children then. He wasn't terribly interested in building a career whereas mine was going well."

Likewise, Businesswoman Helen Noble has no qualms about her career ambition, and says there was a career plan in place “right from the outset.” And though she always imagined having a family, she always imagined working as well. “I left home at the age of 18 to go
to university and I always really wanted to do well in law. I started life as a barrister but I quickly decided I wanted to be a solicitor with more client contracts. I knew I was going to carry on working and always have a career. I think I knew very early on that I would be doing shipping and insurance work and I haven’t budged from that, I’ve just rolled ahead in it.”

Economically, Helen agrees it made sense for her to become the breadwinner, but it was more as a result of her and Mike’s joint philosophy that one parent should stay home with the children. There was no big board meeting she recalls. “We got engaged in 2001 on New Years Eve and we knew straight away that we would have children. I don’t think we ever discussed what we would do but it made huge economic sense. Mike worked in some of the major law firms in London so he had a big career in credit control but there’s a ceiling on working in accounts departments in law firms. I earned more money than Mike could ever earn so it just fell into place and he decided that he’d be the one to stay at home.”

Read more about Female Breadwinners in the Winter 2011 issue of WMB, on newsstands from December 1st!