Top 44 Breadwinner Quotes & Sayings

Explore popular Breadwinner quotes.
Last updated on April 14, 2025.
I've always played that role in my family: the breadwinner.
My dad was opening fast bowler for Yorkshire's second team and I couldn't believe he could die. He wasn't going to get better for at least six months, so I left school early to become the family breadwinner.
People with a college education are now less likely to divorce than they were a few decades ago, and they're more likely to describe their marriages as happy. That finding really surprised me. It appears that those with a higher education have been more able to dismantle strict traditional roles and, in doing so, gain more freedom. I call it a seesaw marriage, one in which both the man and the woman take turns being the breadwinner, making it possible for each of them to experience career advancements or breaks at different times.
The typical minimum wage earner is a provider and a breadwinner - most likely a woman - responsible for paying bills, running a household and raising children. — © Tom Perez
The typical minimum wage earner is a provider and a breadwinner - most likely a woman - responsible for paying bills, running a household and raising children.
Considering the absence of legal coercion, the surprising thing is that men have for so long, and, on the whole, so reliably, adhered to what we might call the breadwinner ethic.
I've always been the breadwinner and men don't like that. They turn on you. They bite the hand that feeds them. Eventually, too, they become very jealous of the love one has with an audience.
When my parents separated, I became the breadwinner of the family.
If a man is a writer, everybody tiptoes around past the locked door of the breadwinner. But if you're an ordinary female housewife, people say, 'This is just something Barbara wanted to do; it's not professional.'
Hillary Clinton was the first professional First Lady, the first feminist First Lady, the first First Lady from the '60s generation, the first First Lady who was the breadwinner in the family. A lot of America liked and admired that. Some other parts of America found that unappetizing and even kind of threatening. So she became a flashpoint simply for who she was.
I worry that some politicians still think we are living in the 1950s where the man is the main breadwinner and the woman works for pin money. Actually, most families where there are two parents depend on two incomes to get by.
Our government and its social policies, its tax breaks, the way school days work, so much of the country we live in is built for married couples with a male breadwinner and a female domestic laborer. Government needs to be massively altered in order to serve this population.
My mom was the breadwinner in my family. I always thought, 'That's how it is.' I never thought that was the exception.
It's very important that your parents have careers of their own. When the kid becomes the breadwinner of the household, that's when you have problems.
A woman - even if she is the primary breadwinner - really needs to keep in mind that at some point, she may have a diminished earning capacity because of the fact that she will bear children. Of course, this is case by case. I had two kids, and it didn't really slow me down at all.
I'm the breadwinner. I kill the spiders. Actually I don't kill them. I put them in a plastic bag and take them outside. I take out the trash cans. I change the light bulbs. I lug the 50 lbs. suitcases down the stairs.
A man has to define himself as a breadwinner, as opposed to thinking that well, women used to be caregivers who also wanted to have careers; men have always had careers, so why shouldn't they also want much more family time?
I didn't have any more children because I couldn't have continued working - and I was the main breadwinner. But although we are small in number, family life has always been hugely important to me.
Women wear many hats in their lives. Daughter, sister, student, breadwinner. But no matter where we are or what we’re doing, one hat that moms never take off is the crown of motherhood. There is no crown more glorious.
People tend to discuss things like relationships with family and friends, and the fact that I'm the only breadwinner in the family. And honestly, I cashed in on it.
It's really a testament to my parents, because I was active, curious and creative as a child, and my parents nurtured that. But I wouldn't say that I was a professional child actor at all. I was never the breadwinner of my family.
Social and economic policies constructed around the male breadwinner model have always disadvantaged women.
I've been my family's breadwinner since I was 11.
Divorce can be tough when the woman is the breadwinner. But the Lord can make the dark light.
With women composing nearly half the American workforce and increasingly serving as the primary breadwinner for families, we can't afford to treat pregnant women differently than their counterparts, especially when slight job modifications could help them stay in the workforce at no risk to their health.
There was a time when only men could provide or work, and still a lot of countries are like that. But there's a price to be paid for that when you're expected to be the full-time caretaker and you're expected to be the full-time breadwinner.
The family indeed is dead, if what we mean by it is the modern family system in which units comprised of male breadwinner and female homemaker, married couples, and their offspring dominate the land. But its ghost, the ideology of the family, survives to haunt the consciousness of all those who refuse to confront it. It is time to perform a social autopsy on the corpse of the modern family system so that we may try to lay its troublesome spirit to rest.
I think it is only natural that people have anxiety about the economy because the economy is real. It is their job, their ability to service their mortgage and look after their family. And in the final analysis, nothing is more important than your capacity as a breadwinner or an earner to provide for those that rely on you.
If you love somebody, you love them. My parents had a 25-year age gap between them and my mum was the breadwinner, my dad the house husband. I'm a strong believer that a good relationship can work, whatever the situation.
I'm looking forward to sproglets but, as I'm the main breadwinner, I feel I ought to capitalise on my career for a bit longer. Mother keeps telling me I should go and freeze some eggs. Not terribly romantic, is it?
The man in our society is the breadwinner; the woman has enough to do as the homemaker, wife and mother.
I am a single mom and I'm the breadwinner and I have to work and I have to do these things and that's just the way it is. I don't think my son even knows any different.
Whatever expenditure is sanctioned - even when it is sanctioned against the ministry's wish - the ministry must find the money. Accordingly, they have the strongest motive to oppose extra outlay. The ministry is (so to speak) the breadwinner of the political family, and has to meet the cost of philanthropy and glory; just as the head of a family has to pay for the charities of his wife and the toilette of his daughters.
My mom was the breadwinner in my family. I always thought, That's how it is. I never thought that was the exception. — © Colin Jost
My mom was the breadwinner in my family. I always thought, That's how it is. I never thought that was the exception.
There was another thing I heartily disbelieved in - work. Work, it seemed to me even at the threshold of life, is an activity reserved for the dullard. It is the very opposite of creation, which is play… The part of me which was given up to work, which enabled my wife and child to live in the manner which they unthinkingly demanded, this part of me which kept the wheel turning - a completely fatuous, ego-centric notion! - was the least part of me. I gave nothing to the world in fulfilling the function of breadwinner; the world exacted its tribute of me, that was all.
I was raised in a house where my mom was the primary breadwinner. It was a dysfunctional house, but she showed tremendous resilience.
In the U.K., my mother had been the breadwinner. I'd seen my parents side by side. In Saudi Arabia, my mother was basically rendered disabled. She was unable to drive, dependent on my dad for everything. The religious zealotry was so suffocating.
This transition of being a woman and a breadwinner - it took some time for my dad to get used that. It took some time for my husband. I was like, gosh, I've worked so hard to be here, and then all of a sudden I don't know if I feel comfortable being here.
In a home where there is an able-bodied husband, he is expected to be the breadwinner.
Perhaps the old view of 'Me breadwinner, you hausfrau' worked for our grandparents, when people obligingly popped off before boring each other to death, but it won't work any longer because we are living too long and divorce is needed today to do what death acomplished more economically before.
I'm the breadwinner in my family.
Men like to provide for women and their families. It's in their DNA. I'm obviously no scientist, but I bet if you could hear a Y-chromosome talk, it would say, 'I want to provide and hunt.' When the woman is the primary breadwinner, it's going against nature. I'm not saying that it's bad or wrong, I'm just saying that it can feel off.
Giving married women an independent legal existence did not destroy heterosexual marriage. And allowing husbands and wives to construct their marriages around reciprocal duties and negotiated roles - where a wife can choose to be the main breadwinner and a husband can stay home with the children - was an immense boon to many couples.
In military families, the service member is frequently the breadwinner. Constant moves make steady employment a challenge for non-military spouses.
Although our grammar schools are teaching a whole generation computer language to adjust to the technological needs of a Stage II [post survival-focused] society, we have neglected to teach this generation relationship language and conflict resolution skills to address the social and psychological needs of a Stage II society. And when it is taught, in countries like Germany, although called social competence it focuses on workplace teamwork - still on survival, breadwinner oriented work goals.
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