One of the long-standing falsehoods of hardline feminists is that bringing in less than half the family income makes women powerless in their homes.  They insist that if women don't work full-time over the entirety of their lives, their husbands will start calling all the shots.  But a new Pew study proves that just ain't the case.  If anything, it's women who rule the roost, whether they work or not.

The most salient points of the study:

The survey finds that in 43% of all couples it’s the woman who makes decisions in more areas than the man. By contrast, men make more of the decisions in only about a quarter (26%) of all couples. And about three-in-ten couples (31%) split decision-making responsibilities equally...

 Two-thirds of all husbands in dual-income families say they make more money than their wives, and wives generally concur in this assessment. But earning more money doesn’t necessarily mean making more decisions at home, at least for men. And for women, earning less doesn’t always mean making fewer decisions.

The study's author commented to USA Today, "Across all decision-making realms, it tilts to the woman. I was surprised by the percentage of men who made none of the decisions in any of the areas. A significant percentage were just bystanders."

So maybe it's men's power shortage the extreme feminists should be worried about!


[Edit to add: I have written an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal about this Pew study and others that echo its findings.  You can read here.]