Why Men Leave Powerful Women

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It can be hard for a powerful woman to hold onto a relationship. Possibly harder than it is for a powerful man to. I think that’s just a testament to the fact that perhaps men aren’t becoming progressive at quite the rate we thought they were. Sure, you have some men who are happy to be the support system, to stand behind their woman and help motivate and inspire her (and help make dinner and do laundry because she doesn’t have time to). You have some men who are like that, but I don’t think you have many.

No matter how much men say they love powerful women, I ultimately believe that, deep down, most men would feel most comfortable always being at least a bit more successful than their female counterparts. Do they admire a woman with some hustle? A woman with drive, dreams, and ambition? Absolutely! But maybe so long as those dreams or that ambition doesn’t surpass their own.

Even the men who I believe are quite progressive and truly admire their ambitious wives will make comments that make it clear to me there is still this stigma there for them. “Well, I guess I’m the wife,” they’ll joke, because their partners make more money than them. They aren’t necessarily upset about it, but, still, that joke exists—it’s that idea that the person who is making less money should naturally be the woman. So, if a man is less successful than his female partner, he starts cracking those jokes about being the stay at home mom in the relationship. Why can’t he just be the…man? Who happens to make less money? Centuries of misogynistic messages can be hard for men to shake off. Here are reasons (very dumb ones) that men often leave powerful women.

via GIPHY

Fear she’ll leave first

Sometimes, they just leave for fear that, if they didn’t, their partner would leave them first, anyways. If a woman is powerful and successful, she is likely surrounded by men who are, too, which can leave their partners at home feeling insecure. Their partners can start to believe, “My wife must compare me to those guys she works with, and they must look so much better.”