abstract: 'In analysing heterosexual couples'' work-family arrangements over time

  and space, the comparative social policy literature has settled on the

  framework of the `male-breadwinner'' versus the `dual-earner'' family.

  Yet, in assuming men in couple-families are (full-time) employed, this

  framework overlooks another work-family arrangement, which is the

  `female-breadwinner'' couple. Including female-breadwinner couples

  matters because of their growing prevalence and, as our analysis shows,

  greater economic vulnerability. We perform descriptive and regression

  analyses of Luxembourg Income Study microdata to compare household

  incomes for female-breadwinner couples and other couple-types across 20

  industrialized countries. We then consider how labour earnings and

  benefit incomes vary for `pure'' breadwinner couples - comprising one

  wage-earner and one inactive/unemployed partner - according to the

  gender of the breadwinner. We find that pure female breadwinners have

  lower average individual earnings than male breadwinners, even after

  controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and occupational and

  working-time differences. Furthermore, welfare systems across most

  countries are not working hard enough to compensate for the female

  breadwinner earnings penalty, including in social-democratic countries.

  Once controls are included in our regression models, it never happens

  that pure female breadwinners have higher disposable household incomes

  than pure male breadwinners. Thus, our study adds to a growing body of

  evidence showing that female-breadwinner families sit at the

  intersection of multiple disadvantages. In turn, these couples offer

  comparative scholars of the welfare state an `acid test'' case study for

  how effectively families are protected from social risk. Our results

  additionally highlight how cross-national differences in the female

  breadwinner income disadvantage do not fit neatly with established

  welfare typologies, suggesting that other factors - in particular,

  labour market characteristics and the economic cycle - are also at play.'
affiliation: 'Kowalewska, H (Corresponding Author), Univ Oxford, Dept Social Policy
  \& Intervent, 32 Wellington Sq, Oxford OX1 2ER, England.

  Kowalewska, Helen, Univ Oxford, Oxford, England.

  Vitali, Agnese, Univ Trento, Trento, Italy.'
article-number: 0958928720971094
author: Kowalewska, Helen and Vitali, Agnese
author-email: Helen.Kowalewska@spi.ox.ac.uk
author_list:
- family: Kowalewska
  given: Helen
- family: Vitali
  given: Agnese
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1177/0958928720971094
earlyaccessdate: DEC 2020
eissn: 1461-7269
files: []
issn: 0958-9287
journal: JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN SOCIAL POLICY
keywords: 'female breadwinners; Luxembourg Income Study; gender; breadwinning;

  earnings; household employment; male-breadwinner model; work\&\#8211;

  family arrangements; women\&\#8217; s employment'
keywords-plus: 'WORK; GENDER; MODEL; LABOR; POLICIES; WOMEN; MOTHERHOOD; RECESSION;

  PATTERNS; COUPLES'
language: English
month: MAY
number: '2'
number-of-cited-references: '44'
orcid-numbers: Vitali, Agnese/0000-0003-0029-9447
pages: 125-142
papis_id: 485a410e9ede1e65381688fa25abb48a
ref: Kowalewska2021breadwinningbreadlin
times-cited: '16'
title: Breadwinning or on the breadline? Female breadwinners' economic characteristics
  across 20 welfare states
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000599245200001
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '8'
volume: '31'
web-of-science-categories: Public Administration; Social Issues
year: '2021'