Dual-Career Couples Who Live Apart: Two Types

Abstract

Increasingly, over the last decade, dual-career couples have met the mobility demands of each spouse's career by deciding to maintain separate residences. This study analyzes the rewards and strains associated with the lifestyle of dual-career couples who live apart. Analysis of interviews with 43 spouses, representing 28 marriages, suggests that the heritage of traditional marriage norms aft~cts spouses' views o/ftheir own roles in these nontraditional marriages. A distinction between two types (mainlyv younger adjusting and older established couples) is helpful in sorting out ways in which traditional marital norms frame evaluations of spousal roles in these relationships.