Predicting Marital and Career Success among Dual-Worker Couples

Abstract

Research is reviewed which is both supportive and skeptical of the assumptions of theories based upon status competition processes, status incompatibility, complementary needs, and threat to gender identity which posit that stress is created in marriages where the wife's occupational achievements exceed the husband's. A theory is posited to explain which couples will or will not succeed in this circumstance. The theory suggests change will be initiated when role performances of self and other are not consistent with the role expectations and self-concepts of the partners. The gender identities of both partners are considered critical variables determining the ability of spouses to sustain a marriage in which wife's attainments are greater. When one or both spouses have traditional gender identities, pressure for change will result when the occupational achievements of the wife exceed those of the husband; when both have androgynous gender identities, the partners are more likely to be comfortable with this condition.