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- Title
Effects of Occupational Status Differences Between Spouses on the Wife's Labor Force Participation and Occupational Achievement: Findings from 12 European Countries.
- Authors
Smits, Joroen; Ultee, Wout; Lammers, Jan
- Abstract
The article studies the effects of occupational status differences between spouses on the wife's employment and on her occupational achievement in the countries of the European Union. The fact that working wives have social positions that are, to a certain extent, independent of their husbands' achievements enhances the possibilities of studying the way in which the opportunities of married persons are influenced by characteristics of their spouses. Moreover, even if working wives derive status from their own occupations, this does not necessarily make their status fully independent of the status of their husbands. The results show a tendency towards similarity in occupational status within marriages. Labor force participation of a wife is highest when her potential occupational status equals her husband's occupational status. Furthermore, the husband's occupation produces both a ceiling effect and a facilitating effect on the wife's occupational achievement. The strength of these effects differs somewhat between the countries. For a wife's participation in the labor force, these differences are related to the country's dominant religion.
- Subjects
EUROPEAN Union countries; SPOUSES' legal relationship; DOMESTIC relations; DUAL-career families; EMPLOYMENT of married women; HOUSEHUSBANDS
- Publication
Journal of Marriage & Family, 1996, Vol 58, Issue 1, p101
- ISSN
0022-2445
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/353380