Discover our other sites:

You might be looking for...

THIS CONTENT IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY NHH - Norwegian School of Economics - read more

Married women made the economy more resilient

For decades, we have talked about ‘women in the workforce’ as one of the most important changes in the economy. But research shows that the crucial distinction lies elsewhere.

Black-and-white photo of a woman cooking in a 1950s kitchen while a young girl stands by an open fridge.

From stay-at-home housewives in the 1950s to the massive rise in employment among married women: The transformative shift did not occur among single women, but when married women entered paid work, according to research by Jonna Olsson.

(Photo: Atelier Rude / Oslo Museum)

Sigrid Folkestad Sigrid Folkestad Sigrid Folkestad Senior Adviser

NHH - Norwegian School of Economics NHH - Norwegian School of Economics

Published 28 March 2026 - 00:01

On social media, the 'trad wife' ideal keeps resurfacing. People joke about being good ‘wife material’: one works, the other stays at home.

But economist Jonna Olsson points in the opposite direction.

When married women broke with this traditional pattern 60 years ago, it made families more resilient – and affected the entire economy.

Father worked; mother stayed at home

There was a time when it was common for fathers to earn the family income while mothers stayed at home.

But from the early 1960s to the mid-1990s, something dramatic happened: employment among married women increased by around 30 percentage points. Employment among single women stayed largely the same.

Portrait photo of woman — “Households became better insured against income shocks,” says researcher Jonna Olsson.

This had major consequences. Not only for family life, but for the entire economy.

An engine of stability

“Married women have been an engine of economic stability,” says Jonna Olsson, an associate professor at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH).

As more married women entered paid work, it helped employment recover more quickly after economic downturns.

“When that growth later stalled, it had consequences for the entire economy,” she says.

Public debate

For decades, researchers have pointed to the rise in women’s employment as one of the most important changes in the labour market.

But Olsson shows that this picture is too crude.

“It wasn’t that women suddenly entered the labour market. Single women were already working,” she says. “The real shift came when married women entered paid employment in large numbers.”

This development did not come at the expense of men.

Married men were not crowded out of the labour market by their spouses. This was not a zero-sum game, the study shows.

From one income to two

As married women entered paid work, many households moved to two incomes. This made them more resilient.

“Households became better insured against income shocks,” Olsson explains.

This also changed how the labour market responds during downturns.

The strong growth in married women’s employment acted as a kind of 'hidden boost' to the economy.

Even after crises, employment continued to rise. When this growth slowed after 1990, that boost disappeared.

The result: slower recoveries after economic downturns.

The 'trad wife' ideal

Debates about the 'trad wife' phenomenon and a return to single-earner households continue to appear in the media and on social platforms.

“As a macroeconomist, I would be cautious about overstating the importance of this trend. Even if the 'trad wife' ideal is visible on social media, there is little evidence that it's widespread enough to affect overall labour supply or macroeconomic outcomes,” says Olsson.

“At the individual level, the lesson is clear: Having your own income provides freedom, resilience, and independence – both in the short term and over the course of a lifetime,” she adds.

Reference:

Olsson, J. Singles, Couples, and Their Labor Supply: Long-Run Trends and Short-Run Fluctuations (Abstract), American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2025. DOI: 10.1257/mac.20200449