Telegraph reports that female breadwinner damage their husbands health

[QuentinSummers]

" men struggling to cope with long hours and the pressures of work, it might seem like the perfect arrangement.

But it turns out having a wife who is the main breadwinner is potentially dangerous for a husband's health.

Researchers found being a kept man, with a wife who is the primary earner, increases the chances of heart disease, strokes and type two diabetes.

Sociologists at Rutgers University in the US who carried out the study said the problems arise when the husband loses his role as chief earner.

Being superseded by a spouse in the income stakes seems to strike a heavy blow to men's health.

It's thought men suffer psychologically from being toppled from their position as main provider and that this has a knock-on effect on physical health.

'We found that violating cultural expectations, such as the masculinity ideal of male breadwinning, is associated with older men's poorer health' "

www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/09/04/female-breadwinners-damaging-husbands-health/amp/

Nice to see it's all working women's fault as usual.

Nope, just simply Mental health affecting physical health.

'We like to talk about the role of 'new man' in the family structure, spending more time with the kids and less out at work.

'But the fact is most men still think they should be the primary breadwinner.

'When they no longer play that role, their health suffers psychologically and that in turns damages their physical health.

'And it's much worse if they have been made redundant.

'It will take generations before this mindset really changes.'

'It will take generations before this mindset really changes.'

Best get started then.

The mental health issue is likely to be a significant factor, because in earlier decades when women were virtually forced to stay at home due to lack of options their mental health also suffered. But that doesn't matter because they were women I guess and that's what Valium was for.

When women suffer an injustice we all accept it as one of those things.
When men do, the heavens are moved to right it.

There's a reference in the last paragraph quoted to "older men". I wonder if it is a problem primarily affecting older generations who grew up with more misogynistic views than prevail now and in time it will be less of an issue.

That seems to be the general thrust.

Ha yes I can't see my DH being bothered (and he's in his early 50s but about 30 in his head)

Hahaha so true

I'm desperate for a female breadwinner. Please, if anyone wants to swap stay at home childcare for my spirit-crushingly shite job then I'm ready and waiting.

I hate going to work more than anything in the world. When I looked after my step-daughter for six months we went to the park and played Pooh sticks, watched Pixar films and played Lego. It was great.

What really really winds me up about any and all articles of this sort, is that when they're about how women are BAD and causing problems for men or their children or whatever, the research is just presented as facts e.g. "Women being the main breadwinner is bad for men's health" and the focus is on it being the women's fault.

But, if the story is about women's mental health as stay at home parents, there would be no suggestion it's because the men work.

If the article is about increasing violence among young men, the article will cover all kinds of people who are offering solutions, it will suggest counselling and it will highlight key government initiatives that have been developed to help solve the problem.

So the research is ridiculous because its presented as standalone. Which it is only done because otherwise there's no way to make it the fault of women. God forbid the article should reference any studies done on women who are stay at home parents.

It's just so one-sided.

There was an article in the Times a few years ago about research that had shown that stress in pregnancy would harm the child, for life. But what infuriated me was that the research was just proving that women are to blame already. If this is SUCH a big issue, then surely the research should explore how the physical effects of stress (which no woman can avoid) can be mitigated? Or perhaps what can be done afterwards? But no, it was simply presented, as always, that women are to blame for every problem a child ever has.

The researchers conceded that it could be that the men earned less because of ill health rather than the other way round.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/men-who-lose-position-as-chief-breadwinner-increase-risk-of-heart-attacks-diabetes-and-stroke-say-team-from-rutgers-university-new-jersey-q9zxt57jr

What, you mean the researchers may have drawn a biased conclusion? I don't believe It!

Or more likely the media spun the results

The Telegraph has quite a funny follow-up article today in their men's section: Life as a kept man is only dangerous if you're living in the past.

There was an article in the Times a few years ago about research that had shown that stress in pregnancy would harm the child, for life. But what infuriated me was that the research was just proving that women are to blame already. If this is SUCH a big issue, then surely the research should explore how the physical effects of stress (which no woman can avoid) can be mitigated?

Or they could, you know, explore how the stress women as a class experience could be reduced. By, for example, closing the wage gap so that women don't experience the stress of being poor anymore. Or reducing male violence, one of the main sources of stress.

Blaming women for experiencing stress, something that's unpleasant and no one would voluntarily choose ... it is so fucking disgusting, I have no words.

But yeah, no surprise. Just another day in patriarchy.

vestal agreed. And that's a whole additional issue.

Although prt of frustration for me is that stress could entirely external. Why if you are pregnant in Houston right now?! How do you stop that happening?! So why are they blaming women. Again.

Women are the root of all the troubles in the world, dontcha know.

I don't know about physical health, because DH is as fit as a fiddle and I'm on my third chest infection in a year but in terms of mental health, ours have both improved hugely since I became the breadwinner and he became the SAHP.

He's admitted that it felt counter intuitive and he felt guilt at first, because he was brought up in a family where the man is the breadwinner and the woman stays at home, but he never expected that of me. It was more that he felt as though he wasn't contributing at all, rather than that he thought he should be contributing anything. (He does now see that by staying at home with DD, he contributes to the family as much as I do by working).

The difference in our mental health is amazing. He was anxious and stressed at work but is relaxed and happy at home. I was isolated and guilty at home but love work and feel incredibly positive. That's bound to have a positive knock-on on physical health (well, when you don't work in a room full of people for 12 hour shifts at a time and pick up every bug going ), and vice versa when people feel their mental health deteriorate due to their working/not working situation, it will have a psychosomatic effect.

The language used in the article is ridiculous though. "Violating cultural expectations"?! It makes "allowing" women to be breadwinners sound like a violent attack.

Why if you are pregnant in Houston right now

Well it could show again how public services are a feminist issue. Houston's infrastructure was not adequately invested in.

I am confident that no matter how good public services are, I'd have found being in Houston stressful!

My mother died when I was pregnant. Very stressful. Nothing anyone could do to remove that stress. My point is that instead of providing endless reams of research proving that things are women's fault, let's see what we can do to solve the problem. And yes, part of that is reducing stress. And part of that is saying that if there are outside things we cannot affect, what should we do about it? And stop blaming women

Nothing anyone could do to remove that stress

Perhaps not. But it is interesting that we have, as a society, basically taken increased stress as a given. So with any problems exacerbated or caused by stress, reduction is not even on the table.

We are left with the laissez faire, sort-it-out-yourself option.

Diddums.

Having said this, I do note my partner's unhealthy lifestyle in the absence of me cooking and cleaning for him, etc. But that is his problem.

I am confident that no matter how good public services are, I'd have found being in Houston stressful!

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/irma-nursing-home-deaths-florida-hollywood-hills-power-outage-latest-a7944911.html

These sorts of things happen with these sorts of natural disasters. During Katrina a care centre flooded, killing quite a few people. The water started pouring in and the staff dropped tools and ran for their lives. Who can blame them? They would have drowned themselves....

But the thing is, when emergency management officials plan for these things - and these municipalities have funded emergency management departments - do they cover these things in a meeting or two. What do we do with the aged?

And to the point regarding pregnant women - do they say, "OK, in Broward County at any given moment there are 200,000 pregnant women, will they need extra support, or do we just hope they can swim well?"

believe that traditionally, marriage lengthens men's lives whilst shortening women's. So perhaps this is just a rebalancing of that effect? Fair enough then.

That's exactly where my mind went. Being a wife kills women early, why wouldn't it do the same to men.

Why isn't the headline "silly men can't look after own health"
I like it!