Women as Breadwinners - NYTimes.com In "The Myth of Male Decline" (Sunday Review, Sept. 30), Stephanie Coontz focuses on gender inequities in the workplace. In my book "The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love and Family," I look primarily at a shift within relationships. While women lag in earnings, a growing number are breadwinners in their homes. In 2010, more than 38 percent of working wives outearned their husbands, up from 23.7 percent in 1987. There has been no stall in this gender revolution; in fact, there has been an acceleration. That so many women, including single mothers, are supporting families is more reason to close the wage gap. I don't argue that men are declining or that women are lording it over them. Women's earnings are good for both sexes. Men are freer to pursue work they enjoy and spend more time with families. Recognizing this, men are investing in their partners" careers, giving women more workplace leverage. It's important to resist seeing the feminism narrative only in glass-half-empty terms. I am a proud feminist, attuned to inequalities but deeply curious about how the order is changing. We must take into account the new chances and challenges women confront, or they will think that feminism has little relevance to their own lives. The writer is a fellow at the New America Foundation.