Breadwinners seem like an old-fashioned concept, but they’re quietly thriving in homes around the country. On average in a couple, one of you will earn around three quarters of the income, and in three quarters of relationships, this person is a man. Women earn as much as, or more than, their partner in one in four households, and while this is up from one in five 20 years ago, it demonstrates how slowly society is changing, and how common it still is to have a main breadwinner. We know from gender pay gap data that women and men earn very similarly while they’re starting out. However, over time this gradually shifts, and at the age of 40 – when often there’s one child or more on the scene, or one parent has spent years juggling work and care – a gap opens up between men’s earnings and women’s. This is often when the man becomes the main breadwinner, and the older a couple are, the more likely the man is to carry most of the earning responsibility. Read more: The five essential pieces of financial paperwork you must never lose And it is a responsibility. Studies have shown that being...