The liberal drive for gender diversity in all workplaces may be resulting in a slew of unsatisfactory marriages, as new research has found that husbands are unhappy when their wives earn more money than them.
The fresh study also revealed that men get a “psychological kick” in life satisfaction if a salary boost widens the gap between their salary and that of their wives.
The phenomenon appears to be a “male-specific” issue, as women do not experience the same competitive thrill if the situation is reversed.
The researchers from City, University of London found that husbands who earned more than their wives reported a life dissatisfaction rate of 11 percent. This number rose dramatically for those who earned less than their wives, jumping by more than a third to 18 percent.
Sociologist Dr. Vanessa Gash, who co-authored the new paper, believes the results show the ideal of the male breadwinner may still be “bigger than we give credit for.”
“Men appear to need to be the bigger earners in a marriage to feel good about themselves,” Dr Gash, said to the Times. “There’s no equivalent feeling for women, so it’s a male-specific phenomenon.”
The scientists studied data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study between 2009 and 2017 to examine how the ‘partner pay gap’ affected wellbeing.
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