The Meaning of Breadwinning in Dual-Earner Couples

One of the core elements in theoretical considerations of late (second, reflexive, liquid, post) modernity and the process of individualization is a claim that people are establishing, organizing, constructing and doing relationships-in-couple during a historical moment when presumed ‘traditional’ and/or ‘normative’ models have been, in varying degrees, ‘breaking down’. This includes, of course, the male breadwinner/female housewife family or household type, which we will focus on in this chapter.