"Would You Want a House Husband?"

Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2013-06-06 02:19

Surprise! Many women aren't interested in supporting stay-at-home dads! Who'da thunk it?! Article here. Excerpt:

'But maybe career women don’t want house husbands? A new study suggests that a significant minority of women don’t want to work to support a man….

Vivia Chen on The Careerist cites a study from Salary.com that suggests women are not particularly willing to be sugar mamas:
...
...In fact, more than one-quarter of women (26 percent) said they flat-out refuse to even entertain the notion of working full-time while supporting a husband who stays home and takes care of the kids and house. That’s compared to just 8 percent of men who said they would refuse the request of their spouse to stay at home.'

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Comments

I don't buy 30%. My instincts and experience points more to something like 99%. Or more.

When it comes to surveys, there's what people think they believe and what they actually do. Does anyone think that any given woman, all other things being equal, would choose to be with a husband who stays at home for whatever reason whom she has to support financially, vs. one who doesn't?

I mean, really?

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Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2013-06-06 02:23

The author of this article is speculating in the wrong direction. It has nothing to do with entrenched gender roles as is suggested in the article. Instead, women are the preferred and pampered gender, and being able to have someone support you is part of that status. Women don't like men to take on their privileges. You see it when men offer to take care of the children - many women balk, like "hey only a woman can do that," which of course is utter BS. What it's really about is that this is a privileged and pampered, protected, and exclusive domain that women don't want men encroaching upon.

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Submitted by redwoodwriter on Thu, 2013-06-06 03:26

It's has a lot more to do with what men and women are attracted to and who is best for what role. Although I don't like the tone of the article, it also mentions that the majority of men don't want to be house husbands. So where is your criticisms for the men? People are certainly free to live whatever lifestyle they want and not be held to gender roles, but why be so critical of those that do like the way nature designed things?

A man who wants 3 or 4 kids would likely see obstacle to his agenda if he also wanted to be a house husband, as his wife would have to go through multiple pregnancies and births as well as maintain her career and earnings. It is much easier for a husband to maintain his career and earnings during the wife's pregnancies. Also much more practical for the wife to be the one to get up during the night to breastfeed.

Unlike feminists and many MRAs. I don't believe men and women are equal. Based on biological characteristics men are generally valued for their work and production and women are generally valued for sex and reproduction. That's why since the beginning of time and in all cultures you see wife's handle reproduction and children and husbands handling the physical work or support of the family. Of course now we have innovation and technology which gives men and women more choices, but biology always stays the same, and while women may now be able to fend off pregnancy and childbirth a little better - men still can't get pregnant or give birth at all.

You can criticize women all you want for generally being the practical choice that couples choose as the stay at home parent if they are able to afford one. But until you come up with ways to fool biology, such as allowing men to get pregnant (even accidentally), and change what men are attracted to and change men's behavior, you wont be changing women anytime soon.

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Submitted by Kris on Thu, 2013-06-06 23:27