American men feel like they aren’t measuring up.
Roughly 57 percent of males say that financial difficulties have led to them feeling like they’re less of a man, according to a survey of 2,000 adults by debt consolidation firm Beyond Finance.
"Financial stress isn't just a money problem for men ... it's an identity crisis," Beyond Finance Client Financial Therapist Nathan Astle said in a statement. "For a lot of men, income has become the measuring stick for whether they are succeeding at being a man.”
The same survey found that approximately 82 percent of men believe society expects them to be the primary earners, yet nearly 70 percent say it’s harder for them to be the main breadwinner today than it was for their fathers.
The impact of that perceived pressure has several clear impacts on men’s mental health, the survey found.
There’s a general sense among men that it’s not acceptable to talk about financial struggles, which leads to silence.
“That silence isn't stoicism,” Astle said. “It's suffering, and it's where a lot of the real damage to men's mental health, relationships and sense of self actually happens.”
About 43 percent of men feel frustrated about their debt, while 32 percent feel overwhelmed and another 24 percent feel hopeless, the survey found.
Likely feeding those mental health struggles is the reality that one in three American men were either not working or looking for a job in April, according to a May 8 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
April’s employment figures point to a bigger trend - men’s participation in the workforce has declined from 87 percent in 1948 to 68 percent in 2025, according to a study by the American Institute for Boys and Men.
Part of that decline is due to more men putting off work to go to school, the institute said.
Many of those who choose to enter or remain in the workforce have to deal with the consequences of primary-breadwinner pressure.
That’s a drawback rooted in gendered expectations that view men as responsible for financially supporting their families, a 2022 study from the University of Connecticut found.
“In general, as men took on more financial responsibility in their marriages, their psychological well-being and health declined,” the study noted. “Men’s psychological well-being and health were at their worst during years when they were their families’ sole breadwinner.”
Decoupling breadwinning from identity is one way that men can reduce the negative impact that being the sole provider carries.
Women, on the other hand, see improved mental health as they take on a bigger breadwinning role.
“Whereas men’s psychological well-being and health tend to increase as their wives take on more economic responsibility, women’s psychological well-being also improves as they take on more economic responsibility,” the study said.
