WHY THE BIG FLIP MATTERS

Something's changing across America.

  • Mothers are primary breadwinners in 40% of U.S. families.*
  • The number of stay-at-home dads has doubled since 1989.*

This reversal in traditional gender roles is what we call The Big Flip. What's more, women are expected to not just close the income gap, but reverse it by 2028. In other words, The Big Flip will be the new normal in 13 years.*

 

BUT FLIPPING ISN'T EASY

  • 51% of Americans still think that kids are better off with mom at home instead of at work.*
  • Only 8% of Americans agree that kids are better off with dad at home instead of at work.*

This collective bias adds up, day-to-day, to have a negative impact on big flip families.

  • Husbands whose wives make more money are 61% less happy.*
  • Wives who are primary breadwinners are also significantly less happy about their family lives than other women.*
  • Divorce is 40% more likely when the wife is the breadwinner.*
 
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REAL WORLD QUESTIONS

Much of the discussion around this topic so far has focused on the broader business and social consequences of this shift. But for the men and women living these changes, no one has really dove in to look at things from their perspective. No one is asking the questions—big, small and unexpected—that crop up when you're living this day in and day out.

What does it mean to be a good mom when mommy works?

What do we say, when people ask what my husband does?

Why do I feel like I shouldn't be doing this every time someone asks if I'm babysitting for mommy?

 
 

THAT'S WHY WE MADE THE BIG FLIP

We want to dive into the lives of these pioneering men and women, and understand how their unconventional family set-up affects the dynamics of power, love, sex, and parenting in their marriages and their families.

Ultimately, we want to answer the question that keeps these women and men up at night:

What does it take for love to endure in The Big Flip?

 
“We need to keep changing the attitude that congratulates men for changing a diaper, stigmatizes full-time dads, and penalizes working mothers. We need to keep changing the attitude that raises our girls to be demure and our boys to be assertive, that criticizes our daughters for speaking out and our sons for shedding a tear.”

President Barack Obama

“This Is What a Feminist Looks Like,” August 4, 2016, Glamour magazine

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*DATA SOURCES

  1. Pew Research Center. “Breadwinner Moms: Mothers Are the Sole or Primary Provider in Four-in-Ten Households with Children; Public Conflicted about the Growing Trend.” Pew Research Center: Social & Demographic Trends, May 29, 2013. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/05/29/breadwinner-moms/

  2. Pew Research Center. “6 facts about American fathers.” Pew Research Center: Fact Tank, News in the Numbers, June 16, 2016. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/06/16/fathers-day-facts/
  3. Silverstein, Michael J.; Sayre, Kate; The Boston Consulting Group. “What Do Women Want?” Boston Consulting Group’s Women Speak Worldwide’s Global Survey: Early results. http://www.womenspeakworldwide.com/Early-results.htm
  4. Wilcox, W. Bradford; Dew, Jeffrey. “No One Best Way: Work-Family Strategies, the Gendered Division of Parenting, and the Contemporary Marriages of Mothers and Fathers. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Sociology, University of Virginia (2008). Referenced in “The State of Our Unions: Marriage in America 2009, Money & Marriage.” University of Virginia, The National Marriage Project, Institute for American Values, p. 19. http://nationalmarriageproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/SOOU2009.pdf
  5. Bertrand, Marianne; Pan, Jessica; Kamenica. “Gender Identity and Relative Income within Households.” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper, May 2013. http://www.nber.org/papers/w19023 Referenced in New York Times article, “U.S. Women on the Rise as Family Breadwinner,” by Ramped, Catherine; May 29, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/business/economy/women-as-family-breadwinner-on-the-rise-study-says.html?_r=0
  6. Munsch, Christin L. “The Effect of Relative Income Disparity on Infidelity for Men and Women.” Cornell University, 2010. Referenced in article on FiveThirtyEight.com, “How Many Women Earn More Than Their Husbands,” by Mona Chalabi, Feb 5, 2015. http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/how-many-women-earn-more-than-their-husbands/ (A 2015 update by Munsch confirms the trend of increased infidelity amongst husbands of breadwinner wives continues. “Her Support, His Support: Money, Masculinity, and Marital Infidelity.” American Sociological Review. 2015, Vol. 80(3) 469-495. http://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/journals/CS/Jun15ASRFeature.pdf)
  7. Teachman, Jay; Western Washington University. “Wives’ Economic Resources and Risk of Divorce.” Journal of Family Issues, October 2010. http://jfi.sagepub.com/content/31/10/1305.abstract Referenced in Forbes article, “Women Who Earn More, More Likely To Get Divorced,” by Howard, Caroline; Sept 10, 2010,http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2010/09/10/women-who-earn-more-more-likely-to-get-divorced/#5e71a7194d51