UK households where women are sole earner significantly poorer than in US and western Europe, research finds

'It could be to do with stronger male breadwinning norms in this country and a greater cultural expectation that women will be at home or part-time and the man goes out to work,' says researcher

The research also found households in the UK where the woman is the sole earner are radically poorer than those where the man is the only breadwinner (Rex Features)

Households in the UK where the woman is the sole earner are substantially poorer than those homes in the US and western Europe where women are the only breadwinners, a new study has found.

Researchers also found households in the UK where women are the sole earners are considerably less well off than those families in Nordic countries, Canada, and Australia where women are the sole wage earner.

The research found male breadwinners in the UK earn less their counterparts in those countries. It said the findings disprove the common assumption that British women breadwinners are high-earning and empowered.

Households in the UK where the woman is the sole earner are also radically poorer than those where the man is the only breadwinner, the study showed.

Dr Helen Kowalewska, of the University of Southampton, and Dr Agnese Vitali, University of Trento, Italy, analysed survey data on 171,697 people in the US, Australia, Canada and 17 European countries.

The research found average (median) disposable income of UK households where the woman was the only earner was £10,700 ($13,980). Where the man was the sole earner, it was around £13,080 ($17,095).

Dr Kowalewska said she was surprised about the wage gap between UK female breadwinners and their counterparts elsewhere.

She said: "It could be to do with stronger male breadwinning norms in this country and a greater cultural expectation that women will be at home or part-time and the man goes out to work. It could also be to do with the fact we do not have as developed childcare and leave policies in the UK.

“Women suffer a greater motherhood penalty here than in other countries. Gender norms seem to persist in how our social systems are organised and in terms of childcare and leave.”

The sociologist noted that Scandinavian countries have a smaller gender wage gap – saying they had made “greater strides” in recent years to address gender inequalities in managerial positions at the “top of the labour market”. Dr Kowalewska also said there was a less sharply polarised wage gap in the wider population.

The Nordic nations are often heralded as champions of women’s rights – with Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden being among the top-ranking countries in the world for gender equality. Nordic countries are also famed for their generous welfare states – the countries have high taxes but receive social security, universal healthcare, and a universal pension in return.

Dr Kowalewska, whose research centres on how welfare state policies impact women, said another reason female breadwinners earn more than male breadwinners across the board is because women often have to “pick up the slack” when there is an economic recession and men – especially those in blue collar jobs – are laid off. The woman may be forced to quickly change careers to an area she does not have expertise in and therefore have less earning potential, she added.

The academic said they found that in instances where the woman is the only earner and the man is not working at all, the female earners tend to have less educational qualifications.

The research found that in Western Europe, the US, Canada and Australia, households with women as the sole breadwinners earned more than those with just the men in employment, with only Germany and Norway as exception.

In southern and eastern Europe, the opposite was true – households with women as the sole breadwinners earned less than those with just the men in employment, with Slovenia the only exception.

“Our findings shed doubt on popular depictions of female breadwinners as high-earning, empowered women – instead they are often lower-educated,” Dr Kowalewska told the British Sociological Association’s annual conference in Glasgow.

“Rather than reflecting women’s empowerment or greater gender equity, female breadwinners are in this position by default, forced to take up employment when their partner loses his job. One reason why the UK bucks the trend for western Europe is that women who are the sole breadwinners work significantly fewer hours, an average of 34 a week, compared with sole men breadwinners who work 43."

She said they are also less likely to be in managerial or professional occupations – 29 per cent – compared with 26 per cent for men sole breadwinners.

In stark contrast, the researchers found that where the main earner in UK households was the woman and her partner worked part-time, the total disposable income was around $25,970 (£19,880), slightly more than where the man was the main earner and the women worked part-time.

Households where both partners worked were the best off, with a disposable income – defined as the total income after tax – of around $32,500 (£24,900).