How couples share money to make men feel like breadwinners

What is it about?

Even when women make more money than their husbands, Ukrainian couples often spend, save, and earmark money in ways that make men feel like they "provide" for the home. For example, men are more likely to pay for "important"expenses like rent or a vehicle whereas women are more likely to pay for food, gifts, and vacation. Earning more money in the labor force for women does not necessarily get rid of gender roles in the home. Couples use money to perform gender.

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Why is it important?

Scholars have not fully agreed whether money matters or does not matter in the home. Some researchers have demonstrated that money can be used to bargain for desired outcomes, implying that equal pay for men and women will result in equality in the home. Other researchers have suggested that money does *not* matter in the home. Men and women perform gender regardless of income. My study contributes to a third perspective: money matters in the home and is actually one of the tools couples use to perform gender in the first place. This is akin to an economic sociology perspective. Money is symbolically significant--how people exchange money affects the perceived "worth" of that money. By exchanging men's money in the home in specific ways, couples actually make men's money seem more valuable and more important than women's money.

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