Marketing to Moms: Moms as Breadwinners

The number of Moms in two-parent households who are the primary breadwinner is at an all-time high, with the number of stay-at-home Dads growing as well. While the economy woes have certainly contributed to this rise in Mom breadwinners, the trend has been noted for the past three years.

It seems that gender roles are becoming more flexible and trends realized during the Great Recession could have long-term affect on cultural views of gender roles.

Men’s jobs have been particularly hard hit during the recession with male-dominated industries such as manufacturing and construction jobs losing proportionately more jobs.

Here are the stats from the Census Bureau released in January for married couples with
children under 18:

• Moms who are sole breadwinners – 4 percent or 963,000 Moms
• Dads who are sole breadwinners – 28.2 percent or 7.3 million
• Couples who both work – 66 percent or 17 million

But just a reminder, two-parent households are just part of the picture.

Seventy-eight percent of women with children in all households (single and married) work. And the U.S. labor force is composed of 49.9 percent women.