The Decline of the Male Breadwinner Model: The Implications for Work and Care
Author(s)
Lewis, Jane
Abstract
I am going to argue that in the United Kingdom and in The Netherlands there is evidence of a pendulum shift away from the male breadwinner model toward what might be termed an “adult-worker model family,” whereby it is assumed that all adults are in the labor market. However, this shift in assumptions has outrun the social reality, for there is a gap between the “oneand-a-half earner” family that characterizes labor market behavior in the majority of European countries and the set of policy assumptions that increasingly tend to assume full individualization. The second part of the article examines the policy implications in more detail for the United Kingdom.
