wear the pants

Idioms  

1. Exercise controlling authority in a household, as in Grandma wears the pants at our house. This idiom, generally applied to women and dating from the mid-1500s, a time when they wore only skirts, equates pants with an authoritative and properly masculine role. Originally put as wear the breeches, it remains in use despite current fashions.

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Example Sentences

And she’ll likely wear the pants for just a season or two.

From The Wall Street Journal

She plans to wear the pants for just a season or two.

From The Wall Street Journal

Players can wear the pants down or wear them high to show off the special socks.

From Seattle Times

He improvised a replacement line that Hughes used in the film: “When you meet your Mr. Right, make sure he knows you wear the pants in the family.”

From Washington Post

I tried something different, and the one time I actually told someone that I prefer traditional male-female roles—that I don’t like to “wear the pants” in a relationship—he misconstrued that as I want to be controlled.

From Slate