Family breadwinner
Family breadwinner, or main breadwinner, describes the social role of a person who makes a substantial contribution to the livelihood of their own family . Life parents with their financially dependent children and her partner in a household ( nuclear family ) is the breadwinner or main breadwinner one parent or partner, the largest portion of household income generated. The livelihood relates to the economic benefits provided by him for the financially dependent children, possibly his own partner and for himself.
From the origin of the word, family breadwinner refers to the fact that the person also contributes to food security through the economic livelihood for his own family . The term is generally used with reference to actual income and is not necessarily directly linked to actual financial cash benefits, the results of family negotiation processes over the disposal of money, the amount of legal maintenance obligations ( child maintenance , spousal maintenance , parental maintenance ) or other maintenance payments. The use of other resources as income or money - such as the use of time and the provision of welfare services - remains with the use of the name breadwinner or main breadwinner usually ignored.
Narrow definitions
Family breadwinners can be both parents at the same time ( dual breadwinner model ) or one parent as the main breadwinner ( breadwinner model ) or a single parent . Even with couples who are basically egalitarian, it can happen that one of the two partners is temporarily the main breadwinner or the sole breadwinner in the event of time off, unemployment or disability of a partner.
In some cases, however , the term “ family breadwinner” is more narrowly defined and describes a person who alone or to a greater extent than the partner contributes to the family income. Social researchers Ute Klammer and Christina Klenner use the term, in a somewhat narrower way, only for people who contribute significantly more to the family income than their partner, for example at least 60% of the family income; According to this definition, families with two partners who make approximately the same contribution would not have a family breadwinner.
Family breadwinners and gender roles
As a stereotype, the image of the (male) breadwinner and the (female) housewife is of essential importance.
In reality, the social role as a family breadwinner often coincides with certain divisions of the gender roles : in couples, the man is more often the family breadwinner, whereas the single family breadwinner is more often a woman.
Within couples, the assumption of primary responsibility for the family income by the woman is only in some cases associated with a reversal of the widespread gender roles with regard to housework and family work .
For professionally committed women, this can mean a correspondingly higher overall burden in both areas of life, work and family.
The expectation of their own breadwinner role as a requirement for themselves and as a social expectation is very present in boys . A lack of school-leaving qualifications, the lack of an apprenticeship position or long-term unemployment represent "a threatening, existential dilemma for boys in a double sense", since without a basis for a living wage their ability to work that supports the family is at risk. As a result, they do not see themselves in a position to do justice to a central male task in perspective. While girls or young women see a perspective in a similar initial situation “in the (unconscious) conscious choice of a housewife and mother role”, a corresponding coping strategy for boys is not immediately obvious. An alternative life plan, for example based on egalitarian gender roles or voluntary work or other goals, requires a sense of self-worth that cannot be assumed in this situation in particular. Boys or young men would need a pronounced self-confidence that could allow them to consciously oppose social norms by choosing an alternative way of life. These connections are seen as central aspects for the work with boys .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gender: Women take care of the money - and the family. In: Böckler Impulse 11/2010. Hans Böckler Foundation, accessed on January 29, 2011 . ( PDF )
- ↑ Michael Drogand-Strud: "... and then I'll be a breadwinner !" Career and life orientation of boys as a task of youth social work and school. (PDF; 73 kB) Accessed on January 20, 2011 (published in 2003 by Leske and Budrich in the Quersichten series, Volume 3: Olaf Jantz & Christoph Grote: Perspektiven der Jungearbeit. Concepts and impulses from practice). P. 3 ff.