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The Gender Cliff in the Relative Contribution to the Household Income: insights from Modelling Marriage Markets in 27 European Countries
[journal article]
Abstract In Western countries, the distribution of relative incomes within marriages tends to be skewed in a remarkable way. Husbands usually do not only earn more than their female partners, but there is also a striking discontinuity in their relative contributions to the household income at the 50/50 point... view more
In Western countries, the distribution of relative incomes within marriages tends to be skewed in a remarkable way. Husbands usually do not only earn more than their female partners, but there is also a striking discontinuity in their relative contributions to the household income at the 50/50 point: many wives contribute just a bit less than or as much as their husbands, but few contribute more. This 'cliff' has been interpreted as evidence that men and women avoid situations where a wife would earn more than her husband, since this would go against traditional gender norms. In this paper, we use a simulation approach to model marriage markets and demonstrate that a cliff in the relative income distribution can also emerge without such avoidance. We feed our simulations with income data from 27 European countries. Results show that a cliff can emerge from inequalities in men’s and women’s average incomes, even if they do not attach special meaning to a situation in which a wife earns more than her husband.... view less
Keywords
wedding; choice of partner; gender role; gender-specific factors; simulation; inequality; income distribution; income situation; role conception
Classification
Family Sociology, Sociology of Sexual Behavior
Women's Studies, Feminist Studies, Gender Studies
Free Keywords
EU-SILC; marriage markets; gender norms
Document language
English
Publication Year
2020
Page/Pages
p. 711-733
Journal
European Journal of Population / Revue européenne de Démographie, 36 (2020) 4
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-019-09547-8
ISSN
1572-9885
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed