Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski turned to her Know Your Worth franchise Friday to look at the ostensible drawback of what The Economist referred to as “the cussed shortage of feminine breadwinners.”
The journal discovered that amongst dual-income heterosexual {couples}, simply 30% of wives earn greater than their husbands — although ladies now make up three-fifths of American college graduates.
The premise was express: this sample is an issue. “So why has the male breadwinner mannequin proved so tough to interrupt?” Mika requested.
The Economist’s Charlotte Howard pointed to a spot between said preferences and actuality. People declare consolation with ladies incomes extra, she mentioned, but the 30% determine persists. “Gender roles are simply very, very sticky,” Howard defined.
Howard mentioned that mentorship applications and better faculty attendance charges should not sufficient. The issue, supposedly, is that {couples} nonetheless look to the mannequin their mother and father had, as Boomers hand down their extra conventional preparations to youthful generations. And even ladies who earn extra, she famous, proceed to shoulder a disproportionate share of family tasks.
MS NOW contributor Huma Abedin agreed and provided a private instance. “After I was the first breadwinner in my family, if I didn’t have a male companion at dwelling taking over the vast majority of the family and childcare work, I couldn’t have executed it.”
Left unmentioned: Abedin’s present husband. After divorcing Anthony Weiner, in June 2025 she married Alex Soros. He chairs the Open Society Foundations, the $25 billion empire constructed by his father, the mega left-wing donor George. The lady who talked about [bragged] about having been the first earner has since chosen a lifetime of extraordinary wealth during which her function as major breadwinner is neither potential nor, apparently, desired.
A second irony: Brzezinski’s personal résumé exhibits years of stable however mid-level work — native reporting and anchoring in Hartford, in a single day and desk roles at CBS, brief stints at MSNBC — earlier than Joe Scarborough chosen her as co-host of Morning Joe. That choice, not an impartial climb previous structural obstacles, turned her right into a nationwide determine and the platform for “Know Your Worth.”
The analysis, Abedin mentioned, exhibits that even primary-earning ladies nonetheless deal with many of the work from home. The query, she requested, is what it would take for ladies’s financial energy to match “expectations at dwelling.” [Huma has presumably been relieved of much of the mopping and dusting duties at their digs.]
Howard steered insurance policies that ease dwelling help, and a cultural shift during which males deal with pleasure of their wives’ greater earnings as “macho slightly than undermine their masculinity.” She gave “all credit score to Travis Kelce” for saying [in a clip that opened the segment] that his spouse Taylor Swift’s drive and success encourage him.
What obtained zero acknowledgment was any function for biology or genetics. Solely ladies [“our neighbors with a uterus,” in case James Talarico is reading] turn into pregnant, give delivery, and are biologically outfitted to nurse. These realities produce discontinuous profession paths and totally different trade-offs between profession funding and childcare/associated duties.
Complementary roles — males extra oriented towards provision and bodily safety, ladies towards childcare — should not a Boomer invention. They seem throughout cultures and deep into human historical past for sensible causes. The panel handled all the sample as a purely cultural defect ready to be mounted.
The section famous one value of reversing the sample. When wives turn into the first earners, males are roughly 1.5 occasions as prone to report severe psychological misery — and that misery will increase when the spouse earns 70% or extra of family revenue. [Abedin, for whom math is apparently not a key skill set, appeared to confuse “one and a half times” with “one and a half percent.”]
Extra importantly, nobody requested the plain query: because the information present that their desired association is significantly distressing to males, why are these ladies so intent on forcing the change?
Brzezinski closed by calling the march towards making extra ladies the first breadwinners “a protracted wrestle.” The wrestle is much less towards “sticky norms” than towards the persistent refusal to acknowledge the plain.
This is the transcript.
MS NOW
Morning Joe
7/31/26
8:17 am EDTPAT MCAFEE [from show of 3/10]: Can we speak about Taylor for a second?
TRAVIS KELCE: After all, all the time.
MCAFEE: You watching her do her factor, and proceed to maneuver and transfer and transfer and work. Has that actually helped you assume via this technique of like, do I nonetheless wanna go? I am getting older, physique doing that. Do you assume that’s form of—
KELCE: Indubitably. She has, we share the identical love for what we do, and we have had this, you recognize, thankfully, we have had this want since we have been youngsters in our, in our selective professions.
And it is simply, it is wonderful to see her maintain going to the desk, maintain discovering new issues to write down about, maintain discovering, you recognize, new melodies and issues like that. And on high of that, nonetheless seeing her have that love and pleasure in what she does. And, yeah, after all that is motivating, that is motivating for anyone to see that.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: That was NFL star Travis Kelce earlier this yr, speaking about his now spouse Taylor Swift and the way her drive and success encourage him.
Swift can also be a uncommon instance of a lady who out-earns her husband, one purpose the couple is featured within the new evaluation in The Economist, which examines why feminine breadwinners stay the exception.
The Economist discovered that amongst dual-income heterosexual {couples}, simply thirty p.c of wives earn greater than their husbands. It additionally discovered that when ladies turn into the first breadwinners, males are one-and-a-half occasions extra prone to report severe psychological misery.
So why has the male breadwinner mannequin proved so tough to interrupt?
Right here to reply is govt editor and New York bureau chief for The Economist, Charlotte Howard. Additionally right here for the dialog, MS NOW contributor Huma Abedin, who’s vice chair of the Forbes and Know Your Worth 30/50 Summit.
So, Charlotte of The Economist, let’s dive into this new analysis. Girls now make up three-fifths of American college graduates. So why are seventy p.c of wives nonetheless incomes lower than their husbands?
CHARLOTTE HOWARD: Effectively, there’s loads of issues I discovered about this text that have been very fascinating. However one of many issues that I discovered most fascinating is that the said choice of People is that, People are, are very snug with ladies incomes greater than their husbands. And People now, ladies usually tend to have a university diploma. They make up a majority of individuals within the workforce with a college training.
And but that determine stays, that you’ve got simply thirty p.c of ladies out incomes their husband. And so I believe what that represents is that this hole between America’s said choice, ladies’s acquired expertise, and the fact of how ladies exist at dwelling and within the office.
HUMA ABEDIN: You realize, one of many issues, except for the statistic that Mika simply talked about, that males whose wives or feminine companions earn one-and-a-half p.c, are extra of the first breadwinners are one-and-a-half p.c, reporting that they’ve severe psychological misery, that really goes up, that when ladies earn seventy p.c or extra of the family revenue, they’re much more harassed.
And that the findings have not modified, that from 2001 to 2011, after which 2013 to 2023, it is about the identical. So why do you assume that is nonetheless taking place?
HOWARD: I believe there are a selection of hypotheses I can put ahead, however the primary factor, and I would like to know your view of this, is that gender roles are simply very, very sticky.
You realize, folks can go to varsity at the next fee, we will have all these mentorship applications to maintain ladies within the office. However a few of these norms are generational. You realize, folks take a look at the mannequin that their mother and father had, and it is a large shift to go from, you recognize, if you consider a millennial now within the office, how their child boomer mother and father existed within the dwelling. It’s extremely, very totally different to see a very totally different gender dynamic play out.
And you’ve got this self-reinforcing dynamic, I believe. When you might have a lady who’s incomes much less, they are going to tackle extra family tasks. You realize, even ladies who earn extra, they’ve a disproportionate share of family tasks, after which that has this impact of perpetuating the concept that ladies are persistently incomes much less as a result of they’re taking over extra accountability at dwelling. They cannot make investments the time that they’d in the event that they did not have these tasks at dwelling. So it is only a very, very sticky cycle.
ABEDIN: You realize, you talked about mentorship, you talked about the generational shifts, which I fully agree with.
I imply, I take myself for instance. That once I was the first breadwinner in my family, if I did not have a male companion at dwelling taking over the vast majority of the family and childcare work, I could not have executed it.
And what this analysis is exhibiting is strictly what you are underscoring, which is that, even when ladies are the first breadwinners, they’re accountable for almost all of work from home. What do you assume it is gonna take? Like, what’s the, what was discovered on this analysis that it’s going to take for it to turn into extra acceptable for ladies’s financial energy to match the brand new expectations at dwelling?
HOWARD: I believe it is, you recognize, a mixture of issues, each wonky and cultural. You realize, on the wonky aspect, you might record a complete variety of insurance policies that might make it simpler for folks to have extra help at dwelling and exist in the way in which they need to within the office as nicely.
I additionally assume, candidly, that having males speak concerning the pleasure that they take of their ladies’s work, and having that be one thing that’s macho slightly than undermine their masculinity is absolutely highly effective.
And so, you recognize, all credit score to Travis Kelce for saying that it is motivating to him. I believe that there are extra function fashions that you simply most likely must see throughout totally different sectors, that do not simply need to do together with your spouse being a pop star, the place males take actual, you recognize, energetic pleasure of their wives’ work and are prepared to do extra at dwelling too.
MIKA: This has been a protracted wrestle. You’ll be able to learn extra about this phenomenon at theeconomist.com. Government editor and New York bureau chief at The Economist, Charlotte Howard. Thanks a lot for sharing this with us this morning, and Huma Abedin, as all the time, thanks as nicely.
