A STUDY OF MARITAL SATISFACTION FOR MANAGERIAL WOMEN IN DUAL-CAREER MARRIAGE

This study was designed to find correlates of marital satisfaction for managerial women in a dual-career marriage. Since the dual-career marriage involves a redefinition of traditional sex roles this investigation focused on various dimensions of sex roles and their relationship to marital satisfaction. Previous research on dual-career marriages was integrated into a very broad theoretical construct about sex roles that included five separate dimensions: sex-role orientation (values), sex-role behavior (current division of labor), sex-role conflict (the discrepancy between the woman's ideal division of labor and the actual division of labor), sex-role self-concept (personality), and sex-role history (parental modeling and information about the beginning of the marriage).;This study sought to identify factors that would discriminate among three groups of women: currently married women with high marital satisfaction, currently married women with low marital satisfaction, and divorcees. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 219 Chicago area women who were employed full-time as managers. These women were either presently in a dual-career marriage or recently divorced from a dual-career marriage. A multiple regression analysis was used to analyze the data from these instruments: The Marital Satisfaction Inventory, the Personal Attributes Questionnaire, and questions designed specifically for this project.;Significant variables for discriminating between married women with high marital satisfaction and those with low marital satisfaction were found for four of the five categories: sex-role orientation, sex-role conflict, sex-role self-concept, and sex-role history. The managerial woman with high marital satisfaction had these characteristics: She (1) professed moderately non-traditional values about marital and parental roles; (2) experienced little conflict over housekeeping tasks and the general tasks of the family; (3) perceived her husband to be androgynous; (4) perceived her husband to be very supportive of her career; (5) was older; and (6) had been married a shorter span of time than the managerial woman with low marital satisfaction.;Significant variables for discriminating between married women with low marital satisfaction and the divorced women were found for all five sex-role categories. The managerial woman who was more likely to be divorced had these characteristics: She (1) professed extremely nontraditional values about marital and parental roles; (2) experienced a more traditional division of labor for housekeeping tasks; (3) experienced more conflict over the general tasks of the family; (4) did not perceive her husband to be androgynous; (5) had not planned a dual-career lifestyle prior to marriage; and (6) did not have children.