Dana V. Hiller

Power dependence and division of family work

This paper reviews six explanations persistently used in the literature for the existent division of family work between spouses. These include role differentiation, socialization—ideology, relative resources, time available, economic efficiency, and the interdependence of institutions. Some difficulties with these approaches are noted, and the overall power-dependence structure of the relationship is suggested as a predictor of the extent to which spouses will share household and child care responsibility. A comprehensive model which integrates present explanations within a power-dependence framework is offered.

Predicting Marital and Career Success among Dual-Worker Couples

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 wifes occupational achievements exceed the husbands. 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 wifes 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.

Relative Occupational Attainments of Spouses and Later Changes in Marriage and Wife's Work Experience.

Using the older cohort of women in the National Longitudinal Survey, this paper analyzes whether the relative attainments of spouses at one point in time are associated with divorce, leaving the labor force, moving to a lower status job and/or moving to a traditional jobone sex-typed female-at a later time. Independent variables included wifes occupational status, husbands occupational status, the interaction between the two (relative occupational status), and whether wife is employed in a traditional or nontraditional job. The strongest finding is the importance of wifes employment in a nontraditional job (sex-typed male) as a predictor of change. Women in nontraditional jobs were more likely to become divorced, to leave the labor force, or to move to a lower status position than were women in traditional positions. In addition, many women in nontraditional jobs shifted to traditional jobs. The relative attainment of spouses further contributes to the probability of these changes, but the effects are not large.

A Case for Banishing "Dual-Career Marriages" from the Research Literature

The authors argue that the concepts career and dual-career marriage are loosely defined in the literature and that this hinders the comparability offindings and accumulation of scientific knowledge. A review of recent articles on dual-career marriages supports this assertion. The absence of clear differentiation between sociological and psychological levels of analysis is an important element in the confusion. Researchers have often assumed that high job commitment (an attitudinal variable) correlates with high status occupations (a structural variable). This article presents empirical evidence for a lack of relationship between these variables from a sample of 450 husbands and 344 wives. The authors propose a glossary of terms to clarify dual-career marriage research.

Necessity, Compatibility and Status Attainment as Factors in the Labor-Force Participation of Married Women.

The probability is tested that a married woman will more likely participate in the labor force: (1) the lower the family income without her earnings; (2) the higher her occupational prestige potential; (3) the less her occupational prestige potential differs from her husbands; and (4) the more her occupational prestige potential exceeds the occupational prestige of her husband. Data from the General Social Surveys conducted between 1974 and 1977 support the importance of economic necessity and occupational potential but do not support either the effects of status compatibility or status enhancement. Beyond the effects of age children and the need for income occupational prestige potential is able to explain almost half again as much variance as the other variables combined. (authors)

Maximizing Confidence in Married Couple Samples.

Most probability samples of married couples do not have response rates high enough to justify the use of inferential statistics. Recognizing that response rates are likely to be low this paper describes 4 procedures that can be used in study design during data collection and in analysis to partly compensate for this failure. The study describes a research project on the effects of relative occupational statuses of spouses for dual-earner marriages. 489 couples in Hamilton County Ohio were interviewed in 1982-1983; the estimated response rate was 44%. 1) A nonparticipant questionnaire was mailed to an additional 436 couples and answered by 162 thus bringing the response rate up to 63% for some of the questions. This nonparticipant questionnaire showed that participants were younger and had higher socioeconomic status. The study bias is still probably underestimated because many couples neither participated nor returned questionnaires. 2) When a survey is reasonabley close in time to a census and when a sampling area conforms to a census reporting area bias can be estinated by comparing the 2. 3) Data can be weighted so that the sample more closely resembles the parameters of the population. Weighting is not totally understood and may not correct bias. A sample biased on known parameters is probably also biased on unknown ones. 4) Replication can also generate confidence in findings. While replication is not always interesting it may be necessary.

A Research Note: Occupational Attainments and Perceptions of Status among Working Wives.

Data from six national surveys are combined and analyzed to determine how pervasive the effects of occupational attainments are on the status perceptions of working wives. The results indicate that the effects are limited to women married to men with middle-class jobs. Women married to husbands with working-class jobs do not change their perceptions of their social status on the basis of their job attainments.

Overweight as master status: a replication.

The study reported here is a replication of an earlier study exploring association of body image with other personality characteristics. In both studies it was predicted that overweight body image would be associated with more negative personality characteristics than normal weight body image, and evidence was found supporting the predictions. In this second study 290 college students were asked to write stories about drawings of normal and overweight males or females and to describe the personalities they created on a personality scale. They were also asked to rank groups of people including overweight and obese persons on a social distance scale. In general the replication supported the findings of the first study.

Determinants of Social Class Identification for Dual-Earner Couples.

This article reports an analysis of the presence and sources of discrepancies in the class identifications of married couples. Among a sample of 489 married couples, about half report different levels of class identification if either spouse identifies as working class. Further analysis suggests that differences occur, in part, because husbands base class identification only upon their own achievements and family income, while wives take into account the achievements of both spouses.