What women want in 2010: A husband who'll be the main breadwinner (British Social Attitudes Survey)

The Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | February 18, 2010 | Beth Hale

[Stoat]

Young mothers are turning their backs on high-powered careers to raise their children, a study has found.

Their mothers, or even grandmothers, lived through a time when women fought for full-time work and better pay.

But today's generation is returning to the traditional values of home and family - and looking to men to be the breadwinners.

The about-face was highlighted yesterday in research presented by leading sociologist Geoff Dench, who has analysed responses to questions asked in the annual British Social Attitudes survey.

His analysis comes against a background of growing political pressure on mothers to go out to work.

It revealed a striking change in values in the decade since New Labour swept to power.

The number of mothers with children under four who thought that family life would suffer if women worked full-time fell in the years before Tony Blair took office, dropping from 43 per cent in 1990 to 21 per cent in 1998. But by 2002 it was rising and in 2006 had soared to 37 per cent.

Similarly the number of women in the same category who agreed that most women want a home and children fell between 1994 and 2002 to 15 per cent.

But in 2006, the last time the question was asked in the survey, that number had rocketed to 32 per cent - higher even than back in 1986 when it stood at 20 per cent. By far the biggest leap came when women were asked whether they agreed that men and women should have different roles.

[BenKenobi]

Would be nice if employers got the hint. Hard to find churchgoing ladies these days.

[familyop]

"Won’t happen anytime soon in the U.S. either, given that men comprise nearly 75% of layoffs in the last two years. Perhaps an all female workforce is easier for Big Brother to control after all is said and done (or undone)?"

But look at the likely big default in front of us. ;-)

[shteebo]

The real men left are looking at overseas brides.

It's true. A discussion about this broke out at my local cardroom a while back. I was surprised at the high percentage of guys who were no longer interested in relationships with American-born women. And this was quite a diverse group in terms of age, race, and occupation.

[Deagle]

Yep... It’s a shame, but brought on by the stupid feminist anti-male teachings of this generation. Unfortunately, it also has detrimental effects on the survival of America - not sure that they would care though...(at least until it is too late)...

[Monorprise]

Family is probably the most important thing there is in to be had in life, baring none.

Women can and will do what they wish, but forgo family you’ve missed the only true treasure in life.

A job or career is after all only temporarily, family is forever and eternally apart of you.

I don’t think anything can ever be more important then your family.

To be quite honest I’m not sure how we ever got to the point where we could so cautiously forsaken our own families, such as we have in this way.

[Vanders9]

The real men left are looking at overseas brides...heh

Its more sad than funny. The prevailing opinion amongst all too many men these days is that western women have priced themselves out of the market. Go overseas!

[Tax-chick]

My husband has been the breadwinner since 1995. My job is to make sure the bills get paid.

[nurees]

I’m the breadwinner in the house but I have a job with a home office. While I have to travel a few times a month, I probably spend more time with my son than if I worked in an office 9-5. We never had to drop him at day care or pick him up late in the evening. His pack and play was in my office for the first year and when I travel, my husband is there 100%. I hate the travel but the trade off is worth it, at least for now. I know in my gut and heart I can never go back to a traditional office job.

[Xenalyte]

Women can and will do what they wish, but forgo family you’ve missed the only true treasure in life.

Some of us wished for kids and couldn't afford to have them.

[Tax-chick]

I don’t think it matters what the exact disposition of income is, as long as everyone is taking care of the family.

[Monorprise]

“Some of us wished for kids and couldn’t afford to have them.”

Honestly I don’t see how anyone could not afford to have kids, if people in 3rd world country’s can afford to have kids. I don’t see why any American couldn’t. It doesn’t have to be perfect, they don’t have to have all the toys in the world, to exist in itself with parents is perhaps in itself the greatest price.

[Ellendra]

The prevailing opinion amongst all too many men these days is that western women have priced themselves out of the market.

And the same women who treat guys like scum complain about how they can't find any good men anymore.

[Antoninus]

It's not surprising that this attitude is coming back around. I think a lot of it stems from the fact that young women have object examples in their own families of 50-60-something women who never married and had children but instead were married to their careers, and are miserable for it. I know we have such in our family and it is sad.

I tend to subscribe to G. K. Chesterton's view:

"When domesticity, for instance, is called drudgery, all the difficulty arises from a double meaning in the word. If drudgery only means dreadfully hard work, I admit the woman drudges in the home, as a man might drudge at the Cathedral of Amiens or drudge behind a gun at Trafalgar. But if it means that the hard work is more heavy because it is trifling, colorless and of small import to the soul, then as I say, I give it up; I do not know what the words mean. To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors and holidays; to be Whiteley within a certain area, providing toys, boots, sheets, cakes and books, to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness."

I certainly don't begrudge women the right to work if they so choose. However, I think for most women, long-term happiness is more likely to be found in the home with the family than in the office with an ever-shifting crew of colleagues.

Women are the chief civilizers of society. I think that part of the reason our civilization is so corrupt today is because a majority of children aren't really raised by their own mothers but by "social engineers" in the form of daycare workers and public school teachers.

[Antoninus]

Some of us wished for kids and couldn't afford to have them.

If you're referring to infertility, that's very sad. And the fact that it costs so much to adopt a child is a national scandal, in my opinion. Fostering is another option, but I think you really have to be cut out emotionally and spiritually for that kind of thing.

[Patriotic1]

I have to say, even women like it when a man does some of that list for them. It’s called taking care of someone. I don’t think I could do it every day, but I try to do nice things for my honey frequently.

[meadsjn]

What women want in 2010: A husband who'll be the main breadwinner

The same cycle of history is probably happening here in the USA. It is good news, but ...

If women really want a conservative family life, they are going to have to fight through several election cycles to defeat and reverse the communist garbage that has been dominating and killing our civilization.

[Vanders9]

Absolutely!

[Vanders9]

That’s because you had to pay all your surplus money in tax so little miss illegal could raise her five brats.

Sorry, but that’s effectively the net result of the “social contract”.

[Xenalyte]

No need to tell me WHY I couldn’t afford them. I am well aware, and not happy about it.

[Xenalyte]

One wishes to provide one’s children a higher standard of living than one had. I could not do that.