Should I Stay or Should I Go Now: Wives' Participation in the Decision to Move for Their Spouses' Jobs

Abstract

Using a feminist lens, this analysis considers the unequal costs borne by husbands and wives when a family moves for a man's job. The paper, which looks at professional middle-class and upper middle-class families, suggests that there are multiple factors at play to influence a wife's agreement or acquiescence to move including economic concerns and economic rationality, the cultural belief that progress and moving-on are inherently good, a wife's sense of powerlessness in the decision process, and a wife's tendency to perceive her husbands' endeavors as preeminent over others in the household.