Wives as the main household earners

Abstract

In this article three questions related to wives who outearn their husbands in Brazil are examined. First we discuss the demographic and socio-economic characteristics associated with the probability that the wife will be the main earner. Second, the patterns of the division of labor among couples where the women are the primary earners are examined, especially as to whether the women spend more time on domestic work than their husbands. Third, we quantify differentials in income between wife and husband earners and examine how these differentials are explained by differences in (1) professional characteristics between men and women and (2) discrimination.