University of St. Thomas Law Journal

Women in Law and the Rise of Househusbands

Paige Dobberstein*

In my senior year of college, I had a conversation with a former female attorney to discuss pursuing law school, and ultimately, a career in law. While the conversation was very informative, there was one aspect that struck me as rather unsettling—the transparency regarding the challenge women face balancing a family with a demanding legal career.

Historically, women have often been expected to give up their careers to become housewives due to several factors, including societal norms, economic pressures, and legal restrictions.1 This imbalance has also been seen in the legal field as “from 1950 to 1970, only 3% of all lawyers were women.”2 However, this percentage has narrowed in recent years, with women comprising 41 percent of all attorneys in 2024.3 This gap will only continue to narrow as “U.S. law schools award more juris doctor degrees to women than men every year, while older lawyers—predominantly men—are retiring.”4 As the number of women in law continues to rise, it can be argued that another number will too: the number of spouses that stay home.

The legal profession can be challenging for those with families. The American Bar Association recently published a report indicating that “many parents feel that having children had a negative impact on their careers and more than half of working mothers felt they were perceived as less committed and less competent by their employers.”5 The study reported that women being the spouse primarily responsible for managing the household has contributed to this problem.6 Notably, the study found that “65% of mothers vs. 7% of fathers” were responsible for arranging child care in their families, and “71% of mothers vs. 9% of fathers” were responsible for scheduling doctor appointments.7

ABA President Mary Smith stated that “[t]he legal profession is not immune to the ‘motherhood penalty’” and that motherhood has impacted “career opportunities, compensation and advancement in this male-dominated field that demands long hours and constant availability.”8 However, Smith acknowledged that the legal profession “should be­–and can be–the gold standard for achieving workplace equity and equality” pointing to a number of solutions that can be utilized to address this problem.9

One possible solution, which is becoming more common, is having the other spouse stay home to take primary responsibility for the household and child-related obligations.10

A recent Wall Street Journal article addressed this topic related to women on Wall Street.11 Known for the “long hours, frequent travel and the need to be on call constantly,” Wall Street can be a difficult place for those with families to work.12 As a result of these demands, it has been advantageous for women in leadership roles to have a spouse at home, allowing them to excel in their careers.13 In analyzing how couples ultimately made the decision for one spouse to stay home, the article explains that many couples “started out with parallel professions but reached a point at which the woman’s career accelerated. When one person needed to devote more time to parenting, it made more sense for it to be the man.”14

While acknowledging the stigma that has traditionally accompanied men staying home while the women work, the article points to a recent shift in this mentality.15 In recent years, there has been a trend of partners “stepping back from their careers to support their wives as they scale the upper echelons of finance and corporate power.”16 Notably, as of 2021, 18 percent of stay-at-home parents were men.17 This number is up from 11 percent in 1989.18

There has been a similar increase in the number of women in Big Law positions with stay-at-home partners.19 While this uptick isn’t necessarily new,20 women have long struggled to embrace the status of their stay-at-home spouse.21 Due to the departure from traditional gender roles, there has been a hesitancy for women in law to be forthcoming about this arrangement.22 However, the reality is that many women in firm leadership positions have “a [spouse] at home who’s shepherding the kids around town, planning the meals, and otherwise keeping the hearth fired up.”23 Associates in Big Law firms have also taken note of this arrangement, referring to it as a sort of “househusband club.”24

While the number of male lawyers currently surpasses the number of women, the reality is that times are changing.25 As of 2024, “56% of students in ABA-accredited law schools are women—and the gap between the number of men and women in law school has flipped and grows every year.”26 With the number of women in law increasing, the number of women in firm leadership positions is expected to increase as well. Due to the intense demands of law firm life, having a spouse at home to manage the household is a realistic solution for many families. While attaining a healthy work-life balance can be challenging for all lawyers, I’m hopeful that as the number of women in law continues to increase, the arrangement that works best for each family will be embraced—even if it means having a spouse at home.

* Paige Dobberstein, J.D. Candidate, University of St. Thomas School of Law Class of 2025 (Articles Editor).

  1. Janet L. Yellen, The History of Women’s Work and Wages and How It Has Created Success for Us All, Brookings (May 2020), https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-history-of-womens-work-and-wages-and-how-it-has-created-success-for-us-all/#:~:text=The%20fact%20that%20many%20women,third%20of%20those%20were%20women [https://perma.cc/5E38-UT25]. ↩︎
  2. Profile of the Legal Profession 2024: Demographics, ABA, https://www.americanbar.org/news/profile-legal-profession/demographics/ [https://perma.cc/N7GH-YPGE]. ↩︎
  3. Id. ↩︎
  4. Id. ↩︎
  5. ABA Commission on Women Report Highlights Effects of Parenting on Law Careers, ABA (Oct. 25, 2023), https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2023/10/aba-cowp-report-effect-parenting-law-careers/ [https://perma.cc/3DZT-WG6L]. ↩︎
  6. Id. ↩︎
  7. Id. ↩︎
  8. Id. ↩︎
  9. Id. These solutions include “flexible work arrangements, more inclusive job descriptions and on-ramp programs for returning to work.” ↩︎
  10. The author acknowledges that having one spouse stay home is largely dependent on the resources available to each family and is not a one-size-fits-all solution to the aforementioned problems.   ↩︎
  11. See Miriam Gottfried, Behind Many Powerful Women on Wall Street: A Doting ‘Househusband’, WSJ (Oct. 21, 2024 5:30 AM ET), https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/successful-professional-women-house-husband-1339832a?mod=livecoverage_web [https://perma.cc/58YE-WB7H]. ↩︎
  12. Id. ↩︎
  13. Id. ↩︎
  14. Id. ↩︎
  15. Id. ↩︎
  16. Nandini Singh, Men at Home, Women at Work: The Surprising Rise of the Modern Househusband, Bus. Standard (Oct. 23, 2024 5:22 PM), https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/men-at-home-women-at-work-the-surprising-rise-of-the-modern-househusband-124102301047_1.html [https://perma.cc/ZH39-HKQ4]. ↩︎
  17. Richard Fry, Almost 1 in 5 Stay-at-Home Parents in the U.S. Are Dads, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Aug. 3, 2023), https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/03/almost-1-in-5-stay-at-home-parents-in-the-us-are-dads/ [https://perma.cc/N7LC-NRAR]. ↩︎
  18. Id. ↩︎
  19. See Jenny Tsay, The Real House Husbands of Big Law: Can it Work For You?, FindLaw (Mar. 21, 2019), https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/greedy-associates/the-real-house-husbands-of-big-law-make-it-work-for-you/#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20women%20in%20Big%20Law,traditionally%20male%20dominated%20fields%2C%20like%20BigLaw%20 [https://perma.cc/3NTG-ZETN]; Vivia Chen, When Stay-at-Home Husbands Are Embarrassing to Their Wives, TIME (Dec. 9, 2013), https://ideas.time.com/2013/12/09/the-househusbands-of-wall-street/#:~:text=There%20was%20big%20news%20flash,men%20who%20stay%20at%20home [https://perma.cc/LV7R-HCCW]. ↩︎
  20. Chen, supra note 19. ↩︎
  21. Chen, supra note 19. ↩︎
  22. See Chen, supra note 19 (stating “moms with the stay-at-home husbands are . . . often more embarrassed than proud that they’ve upset the traditional order.”). ↩︎
  23. Chen, supra note 19. ↩︎
  24. Chen, supra note 19. ↩︎
  25. See Profile of the Legal Profession 2024: Women in the Legal Profession, ABA, https://www.americanbar.org/news/profile-legal-profession/women/#:~:text=It’s%20a%20meaningful%20change%2C%20although,progress%20in%20gender%20equality%20lags [https://perma.cc/2DNX-834L] (stating “There are still many more male lawyers than female lawyers in the United States, but that is changing, too. Slowly.”). ↩︎
  26. Id. ↩︎

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