Markup View

Author: Dacilriel

Jul 17th 2012 at 8:35:14 PM

This trope can vary a lot according to time and place. In the U.S. it's mostly a DiscreditedTrope as mentioned above, though it was valid fifty or sixty years ago, which is when most examples probably date from. Today, women are expected to be responsible for their own finances.

This trope would be completely inverted in cultures in which the wife is responsible for keeping the household budget. It is also likely to be inverted in stories in which the wife is wealthy but the husband is not, since the wife is probably the one holding the purse strings.

AgathaChristie was fond of playing with and inverting this trope:

In ''DeathOnTheNile'' Linette was a very wealthy woman who had been trained by her father in managing her financial and legal affairs, and as such was very clever and and capable in business matters. Her husband, on the other hand, had no business sense at all.

In ''WitnessForTheProsecution'' Miss Emily French was a shrewd business woman. She pretended ignorance in order to have an excuse to flatter the handsome young Mr. Vole and ask for his help with her finances.