Did you see the Time magazine headline declaring women "The Richer Sex”? The accompanying article, inspired by Liza Mundy's book of the same title, predicts that within a generation, women will overtake men as financial breadwinners, with more American families supported by women than by men within 25 years.
In a piece for Ebony, Zerlina Mazxwell argues that that dynamic is old news in the African-American community and suggests that black families might have some insights to offer the rest of the nation:
That may be in part because a higher percentage of African American women are achieving college degrees. This could mean that over the next generation the overall shift in female run households, already felt in many Black households could be even more dramatic in our homes over the next generation …
Questions over how traditional parenting roles, household responsibilities, and financial burdens should be shared between two parents when the woman makes more money than her spouse is a question with no definitive answer. Old school gender roles are so entrenched it’s becoming more difficult to navigate who should be responsible for what within a family since historic norms simply won’t matter anymore. Black women who have been able to navigate this new frontier may be able to offer some guidance as we’ve been here first and other women are on track to follow suit very soon.
Read more at Ebony.