Almost half of US women are primary breadwinners: poll
AFP
WASHINGTON - Women now make up nearly half of the US workforce, compared to the third they constituted 40 years ago, and the vast majority of Americans think this is a good thing, according to a Time magazine poll.
Some 40 percent of US women are the primary breadwinner for their family, according to the survey of 3,400 adults between August 31 and September 15.
In 1972, at the height of the "women's lib" movement, the student population on US university campuses was 60 percent male -- now it is the other way around. Meanwhile, the 10 percent rate of female enrollment in law and medical degrees has risen to close to 50 percent.
Despite that progress, most Americans -- 57 percent of men and 51 percent of women -- still believe it is better for a family if the father works and the mother stays at home to look after the children.
More than two in every three women -- 69 percent -- said they face male resentment if they have more power than men, though only 49 percent of men said that was the case.
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