The Political Economy of Hegemonic Masculinity: Race, Income, and Housework in the United States

Abstract

Macrocultural dynamics of hegemonic masculinity complicate microeconomic negotiations. In this article, I examine hegemonic masculinity as an explanatory framework to understand how gendered work in households differs along income and race dimensions. I use Panel Study of Income Dynamics data to demonstrate how men of different race and income groups respond to their female partner out-earning them, an economic threat to masculinity. Results indicate that upper-income couples with White men have a strong aversion to the situation in which a woman out-earns her male partner. Middle-income White men follow suit, but lower-income White men, and Black men in most income groups, do not. I discuss how these findings relate directly to power, patriarchy, and the hegemonic nature of hegemonic masculinity. JEL Classification: B54, J15, J16