It’s really easy to find stories about the hard knock life of professional women. There’s not enough equality in the workplace, not enough good childcare, not enough balance at home, not enough hours in the day. . . It’s the (true) stuff of many, many magazine articles.
But, this Bloomberg BusinessWeek story Behind Every Great Woman, I’m happy to say, is not one of those stories. Instead, Bloomberg Businessweek profiles a few women who’ve made it to the top of the corporate ladder without having to sacrifice their marriages, children, or sanity.
They did need help though, and they got it from their husbands. These men chose to scale back on their careers, or give them up completely, to be supportive corporate spouses, household managers, and primary caregivers to their children.
The stay-at-home husband (or partner) is far from a new phenomenon. Who among us doesn’t know a stay-at-home dad? Okay, maybe two.
But the point of the Businessweek article is: that number is about to rise as women continue their ascent in the workplace. (Unfortunately, men have lost more jobs in this poor economy than women and that’s contributing to the shift as well.)
So, what does this mean to us marketing to women experts? Our business model is shaped by the fact that women—whether they work outside the home or not—are their household’s primary decision makers, money managers, schedulers, social directors and myriad other roles responsible for 83% of all consumer purchases.
If more men start staying home while their partners work full time, this fact might change. (I sure hope it will!) And that means the way we do business at Brogan will have to change, too, just as it did when the internet took over the planet, and as it is again in the era of the smart phone and tablet.
Even though that will send me and my colleagues back to the books, you won’t hear anybody cheering more loudly than me.
Now I’m just wondering how long it’s going to take before the stay-at-home husbands graduate from being newsworthy tokens to being a force to be reckoned with (and marketed to).
What do you think? Are you seeing this shift in your community?
Meanwhile, download our free whitepaper: Marketing to Women.
I’m very proud of my stay at
I’m very proud of my stay at home husband, and it definitely allows me to feel like I “have it all” moreso than my friends and co-workers with two working spouses.
So far, I don’t think this arrangement has affected our purchasing decisions, although my son’s favorite restaurant is a local sports bar, not McDonald’s like some of his 4-year-old counterparts. 🙂