New research from the University of Connecticut suggests there are health benefits to a reversal of the traditional gender roles in heterosexual marriages.
Connecticut researchers followed the relationship between the income contributions of married men and women and their wellbeing over 15 years. All participants were between 18 and 32 years old and in heterosexual marriages.
One of the primary findings is that millennial men's well-being improved from staying at home, while women's improved by being the breadwinners.
Personal finance expert Farnoosh Torabi said this is good news and creates an optimistic attitude about women as breadwinners.
"I think it’s encouraging specifically with that younger generation," she said. "I find that many of these individuals were probably raised with untraditional households themselves; whether they had single moms or moms who work or moms who makes more."
Torabi, author of the book "When She Makes More: 10 Rules For Breadwinning Women," said many couples today are more open to the reality of economic dynamics not being traditional when in a relationship.
Today, 24 percent of married women are the breadwinner, compared to 11 percent in the 1960s. However, Torabi said it won’t be long before the women breadwinning group is no longer a minority. One of the reasons being women have higher graduation rates than men.
"I think the trend is only going to grow as more and more women graduate from college and grad school," she said. "Currently, we are doing so at a higher level than men and if you also look at the industries that are booming, many of them are employing women at higher rates."
Overall, however, women household breadwinners, including single moms, make up about 40 percent of households across the United States.
The consequences of gender stereotypes are one of the leading contributing factors to the small number of women breadwinners, Torabi said.
"For centuries men have been conditioned to prepare for life, and I think for older men perhaps its’s very jarring when they’re in a relationship and they feel like their purpose was supposed to be the most important financial person in the relationship when that is no longer required of them," she said.
Torabi said she hopes more couples will dissociate themselves with gender and marital obligations as more partners make decisions based on what they want to do rather than what they sense they should do.