(Thumbnail image: Good Housekeeping)

Guess who’s bringing home more of the bacon?

According to a new study released by the Pew Research Center, the percentage of American women out-earning their husbands has more than quadrupled since 1970.

We’re looking at reactions to the so-called role reversal, with perspectives from CNN, ABC, CNBC, and the Huffington Post.

First up, CNN’s Susan Lisovicz explains the numbers.

"This is happening because largely, men have a higher unemployment rate than women, and that's because male-dominated industries like construction and manufacturing were hit hard during the recession.  Education and health care, which are predominantly female fields have actually been adding jobs throughout the recession."

To be clear, 78 percent of men still earn as much or more than their wives.

Still, an ABC News report says the Pew Center’s findings are good news for men

“Diamonds are still a girl’s best friend, but for boys a ring like this turns out to be a pretty good investment. These days men get the biggest economic boost from marriage because more wives are educated and working Median household income rose 60 percent for married men since 1970. For single men, just 16 percent.”

Panelists on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” offer opposing perspectives—one is worried about a male backlash, and the other says men are embracing the benefits of the role reversal.

LEE SIEGEL, Sr. Columnist at the Daily Beast:  “I just hope there’s not a Betty Friedan-like backlash, that you don’t have a kind of masculine mystique book, with men standing out there burning their baby bjorns.”

ELDA DORAY, Partner at Ernst and Young: "I think men are realizing that having a financially independent wife is really liberating, to a large extent, because it means they're freer to pick the job or profession they really want."

Finally, on The Huffington Post, sociologist Philip Cohen suggests it’s misleading for the report to suggest women are earning more than they were in 1970.

Cohen writes there was a different fundamental shift in the last four decades.

“Let's also not forget, though, that the wives who were not ‘working’ were just not getting paid for their work. I've tried to make the case that the movement from unpaid to paid work for women is a job shift - and a crucial one - rather than a movement into ‘work.’”

So what, if anything, do the Pew’s findings mean for men and marriage? Does it constitute a role reversal?

 Writer: Courtney Cebula