The Breadwinner Is Changing. Is Business Keeping Up?

For most of modern history, the breadwinner has unsurprisingly been a stable “norm.” The person who earned the money, provided for the family and, in many ways, defined success. Today, that definition is becoming far less clear.

A few stories caught our attention recently but here are a couple which stood out. The first came from the Financial Times, which argued that the greatest economic disruption of the past generation hasn't affected everyone equally. As manufacturing jobs disappeared and knowledge work expanded, less-educated young men have experienced a sharp decline in economic opportunity, while women have broadly benefited from growth in healthcare and services. 

The second came from the Karnataka High Court, which ruled that in India the term homemaker is gender-neutral and can equally describe a breadwinner, wage earner or working professional. Together, they point towards something much bigger than changing job markets. They suggest we're fundamentally redefining how contribution is valued as a whole.

For business leaders, this is more than an interesting social conversation. It has profound implications for how organisations attract, retain and lead people. 

Much of organisational life still rests on assumptions built for a twentieth-century workforce. Policies around flexibility, parental leave, career progression and wellbeing often assume relatively fixed family structures and relatively clear divisions of labour. Increasingly, those assumptions no longer hold. Financial provision, caregiving, emotional labour and household management are being shared in ways that are more fluid, negotiated and, at times, uncertain.

This is where many organisations risk organisational lag: the growing gap between how businesses assume people live and how people actually experience life. If leaders continue designing workplaces around outdated social models, they risk creating policies that solve yesterday's problems rather than today's. Often workforces are designed in the leader’s image, which makes it even more important to have an open mindset and view of how society is today. 

There is also a commercial dimension that deserves greater attention. Identity has always shaped behaviour. As traditional ideas of masculinity, success and family evolve, so too do expectations of employers. People increasingly judge organisations not only by what they pay, but by whether they understand the realities of modern life. Relevance, in other words, is becoming less about demographics and more about lived experience.

We asked our team at The Unmistakables what the changing idea of the breadwinner means to them.

Simone Harvey, Client Partner

The idea of a 'traditional' breadwinner conjures up an image of a man for many, though this varies culturally and depending on your family structure. Both of my parents had paid work and also contributed to the work of the household. My example of masculinity, through my Dad, was a hardworking widely-skilled Caribbean-born man who could turn his hand to cornmeal porridge and sweetbread as easily as he could fix a TV or service a car. And with that I have memories of both parents heading off to work, being in the kitchen, and taking us to school and clubs. Whether the division was equal, would be for my parents to decide.

The breadwinner or main money maker in a home impacts how labour gets distributed within the household. Interestingly, despite more women being the primary breadwinner, the mental load of the home remains unevenly skewed, especially for mothers. Research by Dr Joanna Syrda showed that although employment status and high earnings reduce a mother’s physical housework, they completely fail to reduce her cognitive labour. 

Societal gender norms play a massive role. Because women are assigned domestic management from birth, cognitive tasks implicitly "stick" to them according to a University of Bath study. The researchers found that managing the household is so firmly gendered that it remains a woman's work regardless of her financial contributions. So when organisations are thinking about retaining senior women leaders, being aware of the context they lead within is essential. It’s why when I coach leaders I look at the life stage, systems and structures they operate within - in the workplace and at home.

Jess Gondwé-Atkins, Senior Consultant, Strategy & Delivery 

The idea of the breadwinner is (or was) pretty much irrelevant in today’s economy. There are fluctuations across geography and of course some very high earners are exempt from this, but for most couples and families the choice of whether one person will have paid work and another will do unpaid labour is simply not a choice. In this day and age, who on earth can survive on one salary? What we’re seeing more of is just women carrying the dual burden (sociological term) for paid work and continuing the unpaid household labour of before. Add to this the emotional labour - supporting a partner and children (triple burden). 

We are seeing some beautiful shifts in parenting, and in other examples like cooking. But on the whole, the gap is still massive. Women consistently perform 4-8 hours more housework per week than men (UK Household Longitudinal Study, 2024). 

I have partnered with many major companies to devise and implement their parental leave policy. When I started my campaign there were only 12 companies globally that offered equal parental leave. Now there are over 200. 

I said at the start that the idea of the breadwinner was largely irrelevant because the cost of childcare now means that families are squeezed even more. Before, families could not afford for one of them to not work. Now they cannot afford for them both to work. The cost of childcare is so much that it is more cost effective for a parent to stop working to look after children all together. This poses a huge risk to talent pools, a huge risk to the choice that families had before. And I would argue, a risk to the wellbeing of parents and children. 

This is perhaps my favourite topic to speak on, but if i had some silver bullets they would be:

• Equal parental leave (equal NOT shared)

• Flexible working

• Culture and role models 

Vicki Horrigan, Operations Manager

I’m of an age where I grew up in a “traditional household” with Dad as the breadwinner and a stay at home Mum (at least until I started secondary school). Now I find myself in a very different household with my elderly Father. I’m the only one of us working, so I guess I’m the conventional breadwinner, although we both contribute fairly equally to the household bills. As for division of labour though - well, that’s pretty much me. Full time working job and full time household job.

Asad Dhunna, CEO

In a same sex couple there has to be an intentional division of labour at home - and we choose to do that based on skill, rather than any sort of gender norms that are cast upon us by society. I think this experience has always made me want to create a working environment where anyone can thrive no matter what is going on at home. 

One of the things I am most proud of is that many of the women who have worked at The Unmistakables have been the main or higher earner in their households, but I also know that this feels like it comes at a cost. The only way to get through it is to talk about it, so it’s great to see more light being cast on this important conversation. 

The question for leaders, then, isn't who the breadwinner is. It's whether our organisations still reflect the society they're trying to serve. Because when our understanding of work changes, our understanding of workers has to change too. Organisations that recognise that first will be the ones best placed to build cultures, products and businesses that remain robustly relevant.

Chloe Davies, Growth Marketing Partner

My Mum was the breadwinner in our household and my Dad was the primary caregiver. Mum worked Monday to Friday and, if I’m honest, I don’t really remember her being around much until I was about five.

What that gave me, though, was a very non-traditional view of the world from a very young age. I never grew up believing that earning, caring, providing or parenting belonged to one gender or another. They were simply roles people played within a family, and I think that’s why this conversation matters beyond who earns the most.

The models we grow up seeing shape what we believe is possible - at home, at work and in leadership. They quietly teach us who gets to have ambition, who gets to care, who gets to lead, who makes the sacrifices and, importantly, whether any of those roles have to be fixed.

For me, seeing my Dad care for us and my Mum build her career meant I didn’t have to unlearn a traditional idea of what women or men were ‘supposed’ to do. My normal was already different and that matters when we enter the workplace, because none of us leave those models at the door. They shape the careers we imagine for ourselves, the choices we believe are available to us and even what we expect from the people we work alongside or lead.

Perhaps the question isn’t whether the breadwinner is changing. It’s whether our assumptions - about work, care, gender, success and family are finally catching up!