Male Breadwinner Ideology and the Inclination to Establish Market Relationships: Model Development Using Data from Germany and a Mixed-Methods Research Strategy

Abstract

A pattern found in many marketing systems, “male breadwinning,” is contingent upon overlapping and shared ideologies, which influence the economic organization and thus the type and number of relationships in those systems. Implementing a mixed-methods research methodology, this article continues and extends previous work in macromarketing on the interplay of markets, ideology, socio-economic organization, and family. A qualitative study illuminated the main ideologies behind male breadwinning and a model was developed to advance the theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of male breadwinning. An experiment in the form of a vignette study was subsequently designed and administered. The qualitative study and the vignette study both show ideologies interact in the way individuals make sense of them or allow them to influence their decisions. The results have implications for the way families and markets are organized, such as the supply of labor of men and women and the offerings of care-related public and private services in a broader marketing system.