Thursday, Jun. 02, 2011
Workhorse Wives
The workhorse wife is the exhausted breadwinner to her dream-chasing husband. It's one version of a semihappy marriage, in the modern style. It goes like this: husband Joe wants to become a poet, sculptor, pro golfer or other financially stressed professional, while wife Jane is the frazzled, high-achieving breadwinner for both in a career that she doesn't find especially fulfilling. Jane's similar to a 1950s husband — except she often does the chores as well. This kind of marriage does not refer to stay-at-home dads, who pull their load by raising the kids. In the workhorse-wife marriage, the "dreariness equation" is way off, and the wife ends up shouldering much more than her share.