Why is it women in business are breadwinners and men in business bring home the bacon? This may seem like a silly question, but it actually has much deeper meaning than you might think - let's explore it.

Bread is known as the 'staff of life' meaning as long as one has bread one can survive. As wikipedia states, "bread may be served in different forms at any meal of the day, eaten as a snack, and is even used as an ingredient in other culinary preparations. As a basic food worldwide, bread has come to take on significance beyond mere nutrition, evolving into a fixture in religious rituals, secular cultural life, and language."

Therefore, the significance of bread becomes as much about bringing people together as it is about feeding one's family.

Bacon, on the other hand, is a cured meat prepared from a pig.

The phrase, 'bringing home the bacon', according to wikipedia, "was historically a reference to the winner of a marital fidelity contest who was awarded a side of bacon. The tradition originated in a 12th-century custom linked to the town of Great Dunmow, England." And, in many traditions, cured meats were enjoyed only by the most financially successful. In other words, men's ability to bring home the bacon refers as much to their ability to be faithful as it does to their aptitude for financial success.

Yes, historically bread was for peasants and bacon for the rich!

One wonders how idioms and phrases take on gender. Is there someone behind the curtain in charge of our language deciding what words to use when referring to women and what words to use when referring to men?

The fact is that if women entrepreneurs continue their current pace in starting businesses in America their ability to be breadwinner and bacon acquirer will soon outpace many of their husbands. "The number of businesses owned by women in the United States has increased 59% since 1997, according to an estimate from the 2013 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report by American Express." Women-owned businesses now number an estimated 8.6 million in the United States. And, although many of these businesses are small each one of these women is proud to be contributing to her family both financially and emotionally and doing it on her own terms.

We cannot forget the 50%+ of the female American workforce who continue to advance working for businesses owned by others. Their perseverance and dedication to their work has led to increasing the wage gap debate of a women's $.77 to a man's dollar. With more conversation comes more visibility, and with visibility comes equality for some. Yes, even women working for others are often the major breadwinners in their families. With the aging of America, this becomes true with the baby boomers as often as it is true with those newly in the workforce.

Women continue to be the majority of college graduates and post graduates in the U.S. and therefore the future for all women is bright. So, we will lean in at work, and continue to bring bread home, and if he brings home the bacon we will make sandwiches and do best what we have always done - nurture ourselves and our love ones to learn that the greatest gift of all is a family where everyone contributes.