Ottawa, August 27 :

Canadian wives made ‘dramatic’ job and salary gains in the past four decades, becoming the primary breadwinners in a third of families here, Statistics Canada said.

In 1967, an estimated 11 per cent of Canadian wives earned more than their husbands did. By 2003, the proportion had nearly tripled to 29 per cent or about 1.4 million wives, the government agency said in a statement.

They are typically older and better educated than their feminist forbearers, thus they have more experience and work in higher paying occupations, the agency explained. But, husbands are no slouches. While most of these wives had twice the earnings of their husbands in 2003, they did not match the earning power of husbands who were the primary breadwinner.

On average, wives who were primary br-eadwinners earned $37,000 in 2003, well below the $52,000 ear-ned by their male cou-nterparts.

Their average family income lag-ged behind that of fa-milies in which the husband was the primary breadwinner.