Listen Live

Click Here To Listen Live

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE.

Foxy 107.1-104.3 Featured Video
CLOSE

So there was a big concert in support of women this past weekend in London.

The Sound of Change concert, a charitable event promoting education, health and justice for women, was headlined by Beyonce’ and Jennifer Lopez, and a whole bunch of big names — Madonna, Mary J. Blige, Gloria Steinem, Jay-Z.

It was a pretty good show and coincidentally the Pew Research Center released a study showing that in the United States women are the primary breadwinners in 40 percent of households with children.

Now, the male talking heads on Fox News and Lou Dobbs Tonight this past weekend were not happy about this fact.

Several heated debates broke out on air between the female anchors on Fox and their male guests over whether this trend is a bad thing or not.

Well it’s safe to say that our community has a head start on this issue since we’ve been dealing with women-headed households for a long time.

But, to clarify, there’s a difference between a single mother raising her children and a mother being the primary breadwinner in a household.

I personally think that a single mother raising children is far from ideal because I do believe in marriage and a strong family with both parents, whenever possible, and there’s more than enough data out there on how children fair better when this is the case.

That said, there’s certainly nothing wrong with women being the primary breadwinners. This may simply mean the husband makes less money or stays home with their children.

I think the real story is this: the recent research on women breadwinners combined with the type of strong female empowerment sentiment coming from the recent Sounds of Change concert is scaring conservatives and many men.  Maybe they’re concerned about the fading of their traditionally dominant roles.

To be honest, I could care less about the fears of tired old men losing their ability to control or dominate us as females. However, I do believe there’s value and beauty in a healthy marriage and, if the marriage is truly healthy, it can certainly accommodate a female breadwinner.

So although I acknowledge the many and often negative social factors that contribute to the increase in females as primary breadwinners –absent fathers, break ups, poor job market, etc.—I still celebrate our progress, our leadership and our willingness as women to provide for our loved ones, including our husbands…

I’ll leave you with this from the late Author Anais Nin:

 How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.”

 

Sounds of Change for Women  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com