Dual-career marriages - the difference between tradition and
today
by Brett Johnson
The decision of married women to diligently pursue a career comparable to
their husbands has redefined traditional spousal roles forever. Dual-career
couples are increasing in number constantly, as more and more women decide
that they want to accomplish ambitions they have created for themselves
before, if not instead of, living out the traditional woman's role of wife
and mother. These marriages pose an amazing challenge to gender role customs,
with dramatically different priorities and means of cooperation than ever
considered (or rather, recognized) before now. These husbands and wives
undermine the traditional structure of marital roles. They are concentrating
more on career development than family development, seeking self-sufficiency,
high achievement, better social status, and financial success. And of course,
they acknowledge both positive and negative consequences of these practices.
Wives' high career commitment
The modern career woman's high degree of commitment to her career in the
1990s may be one of the most problematic factors concerning marital satisfaction
of both husbands and wives. While the workforce has finally accepted the
position of women as interchangeable with that of a man, the same transition
still has yet to occur completely and successfully in the household. The
dissatisfaction of working wives tends to be a consequence of their expanding,
instead of redefined, responsibilities and role as a result of their demanding
career. In contrast, husbands' marital dissatisfaction often results from
the fact that she is less available for him, to accommodate him, because
she does not have the time. Nonetheless, some career women are readily admitting
to their husbands that their work comes first.
Another apparent consequence of wives' high career commitment is the increasingly
limited amount of children in the dual-career marriages of young couples.
L.J. Beckman's (1978) work showed that working women considered parenting
and a career as conflicting, if not competing roles.1
Rosanna Hertz's study (1987) of corporate career couples explains that employers'
expectations of career-devoted employees are still based on the assumption
that the employee is a man, and constructed around male social roles and
experience. His (or her) devotion to the needs of the company are regarded
as his/her investment in the corporation, in turn, meriting investment in
them by the company (e.g. promotion, salary increase, more flexible management,
etc.). When career-oriented women desire to have and care for children in
a traditional manner (such as taking time off while the children are young)
rather than following the stereotype male career pattern, it is often interpreted
as disinvesting in the corporation. Because the employment contract positions
the individual against the corporation, dual-career couples often find it
easier to adjust the institution over which they can exercise control (family)
than the one they cannot.2
Continual attachment to traditional spousal roles
Despite all of the changes spousal roles have undergone in the second half
of the twentieth century, some traditional characteristics of "wife"
and "husband" are still strong, and seen in the expectations one
spouse has for the other. In Nicola and Hawkes' study (1985) of marital
satisfaction in relation to an equal division in the rights and duties of
marriage, the responses of husbands and wives revealed that the transition
of the wife's responsibilities from solely domestic to include career demands
also, was troublesome to the husband in any one of many different ways.
If the woman is considered very successful, the husband usually still experienced
the feeling that her success negated from his status. Occasionally husbands
felt overshadowed by their wives' careers. Especially in cases where the
husband was underemployed, the wife as the primary income-earner only perpetuated
the tendency on his part to consider the marriage greatly imbalanced, problematic,
and the cause of great dissatisfaction. Even if her success was not as much
of an issue, the mere fact that her attention was divided between work and
home caused most husbands to believe that they were being neglected, denied
a '50s wife - someone able and willing to do all the care-giving tasks including
everything from ironing his shirts and having dinner waiting when he returns
from work, to being the selfless/sacrificial mother. "The more sex
role traditional husbands were, the more likely they were to hold feelings
of resentment".3 The possible effects of
the wife's long work hours on the husband's well-being, then, may be bound
to the social roles of women 4
The husband was not the only spouse with expectations rooted in the past.
The responses of wives revealed that, in addition to their desire for an
equal power position in the marriage, they still desired the husband to
be the primary provider of emotional support. She emphasized the need for
attention initiated on his part, and his response to her expressiveness
after/aside from work. Many of these women are experiencing the impact of
greater equality in professional careers upon each spouse's ability and/or
readiness to offer support or bestow attention upon the other. This is one
of the many ways in which work is subtracting from the ability of employees
(in this case couples) to benefit from the time that they do have to themselves.
These aspects which transcend or alter the traditional spousal roles as
a result of career dedication are often highly disruptive to marital satisfaction
of both men and women. In Galambos and Walters' study (1992) of the extent
to which dual-earner couples' work schedule strains predicted strain on
both spouses, results depict a correlation between wives' longer work hours
and "higher role strain among wives and higher depression in their
husbands. Moreover, wives' higher role strain and anxiety were related to
husbands' higher depression".5 Meanwhile,
Burke, Weir and DuWors (1980) found that long work hours by husbands were
associated with marital and life dissatisfaction in wives also. However,
a great amount of wives' dissatisfaction resulted directly from their fatigue
from the seemingly conflicting demands of work, home, and family (in cases
of couples with children), or from "overload". It is expected
that a man will be compelled to work long hours, but high career commitment
"remains social deviance for wives"6
and related to role conflict for women, unlike men .7
The cost of the loss of leisure for dual-career couples
The fundamental consequence of a dual-career marriage is the fact that long
working hours on the part of both spouses subtracts from the much needed
time for completion of household tasks, causes greater fatigue due to energy
depletion at work, and deprives them of the most essential element to the
growth and strengthening of their relationship - time together. Many people
today are working for "things", which "fill up empty spaces
in our lives. Many couples concentrate on owning a house...when what they
really crave is an emotional construction- home".8
However, because of the loss of leisure time due to work, consumers have
less time to spend enjoying that which they spent so much effort on acquiring.
These work-driven couples may indeed be accumulating the objects of possession
that they believe secure a better social status, but are being deprived
of the benefits those possessions are supposed to contribute to their leisure.
Most importantly, dual-career couples often admit that they do not even
have enough time to talk to each other.9 These
are significant examples of Schor's belief that work itself is beginning
to erode the ability to benefit from leisure. I believe it extends one step
further. The demands of and high commitment to work are impeding upon the
degree of the employee's capability to tend to the needs of the people and
relationships in his/her life, thereby ultimately negating from overall
life satisfaction.
Self-sufficiency and personal achievement are what most dual-career couples
look to as their goal and compensation for their sacrifices and efforts
to manage the demands of the workplace and the marriage. However, for most
couples, to be self-sufficient ultimately means to purchase, becoming dependent
upon their high combined salary to pay for the services of others. In order
to insure individual and family achievement for two careers, these couples
are forced to find a way to replace the traditional wife's role.10
This usually means hiring domestic help to take care of the needs of the
house, and childcare providers. For dual-career couples,
self-sufficiency is reduced to the form of control they have over the quantity
(and the quality) of the things they consume and services (assistance) they
require. This is because most of the things they consume exist apart from
the act of their creation. The only visible result of their work is their
salary, which enables them to consume what they need and desire, and to
continue living their career-centered lifestyle. The ambitions of these
couples therefore involve reliance upon others as well as self-sufficiency;
dependence as well as independence.
Advantages to having two incomes
Despite all of the more negative consequences seen of having a dual-career
marriage, the positive affects are undeniably significant to some spouses,
financially and emotionally. The fact that both husband and wife share a
more similar marital role enables better mutual understanding. Each spouse
is able to relate to the daily experiences (pressures, particularly) of
the other, therefore able to be a much better source of advice and support.
Financially, with the combination of their incomes, these couples are often
included in the upper income level of society. This fact reduces anxiety
about the effects of income fluctuations of a single-income household. The
additional substantial income of the wife can be seen as allowing the husband
more freedom and flexibility in his career, with the absence of responsibility
of being the sole income-earner in the household/family. Because the financial
responsibilities are divided, he has the opportunity to make work-related
decisions based upon his personal preference rather than survival necessity.
Indeed, this type of marriage allows these kinds of opportunities for either
spouse. Basically, because of their greater sense of financial security,
they are able to afford taking risks by altering their career pattern, for
example, in search of greater work satisfaction.
Most important, perhaps, is the satisfaction of some couples in their career-oriented
marriage because they are happy focusing on this aspect of their life, and
having someone who understands that contentment (or ambition) to share life
with.