Role Reversal

Today's edition is focused on wives taking on roles as primary breadwinners in their families while their husbands assuming the stay-at-home role with the responsibilities of raising the children. Nowadays, more women in Liberia are becoming primary breadwinners for their families, stepping away from their 'home keeping' roles.

The argument is that role reversal is inapplicable in the African context and several reasons have been outlined by many Liberians recently interviewed by Women & Family. They said: “having a woman perform the role of THE provider or breadwinner in the family has potentially, an attached stigma for the man.”

As observed during separate interviews, the fear is that when a woman begins to play the ‘sole provider’ role in the home, the man begins to experience some insecurity. In some instances, he develops a bit of frustration as a result of the wife overstepping her role, courtesy (because) of her newfound position and, wrongly presumed, power! His ‘say’ in things related to the home clearly diminished by a wife now asserting herself perhaps for the first time, obviously will help limit an erstwhile (earlier) controlling position the male partner had enjoyed in the past. It is believed that men who find themselves in such a situation are often ridiculed in our traditional setting, as “having lost control.”

Our interviewees quickly nodded in the affirmative when asked whether they felt the role reversal concept was best fitted for the developed world. “This concept just does not work in our African traditional context,” they are quick to add. “Apart from the man feeling insecure in the home, let's look at the other side of the coin. African women in general always love to be at the receiving end. Liberian women may not be an exception to this. Even if she is out-earning him financially, a typical Liberian wife will still want her husband to play his role as the designated income provider or executive officer in the home,” an interviewee said.

Did What They Had To

Let us first take a reflective look at the role of women as sole providers for their families during the Liberian civil crisis. It may be recalled that at a certain point during the heat of the Liberian war, when it was extremely unsafe or dangerous for ordinary men or civilians to be seen in public, they were constrained to allow a shift in the breadwinner role by having their wives make life-threatening sacrifices for the survival of their families in such threatening circumstances. Role reversal in this context was about having remarkable strength and fortitude as women who tirelessly strove to protect and ensure the survival of their families while finding ways of coping with their nightmare.

Tradition Says 'No'

“On the cultural or traditional side of the coin, the responsibilities of staying at home and raising the children are perceived as the natural gender role of a woman. Frankly, men do not generally believe in becoming stay-at-home dads to allow their wives step outside the home and go public as breadwinners. As pointed out above, men, in our recent past, were constrained to allow this shift in gender roles, especially during the heat of the war when it became extremely unsafe for them to be seen in public and women were then forced to play this role.  And you know… that was understandable. But now, it is impossible here; of course, in the developed world, that situation is commonplace. However it goes, and in whatever setting, the deep-rooted notion is that women are mothers who need to oversee the upbringing of the children,” says a professional educator.