The impact of wives' employment on family power structure, division of household labor, and role conflict among the Korean dual-career couples: A covariance structure analysis

In order to better understand the difficulties which dual-career couples confront, there is a growing need to investigate the causes and the consequences of the gendered division of household labor, which is hypothesized to be the core problem of dual-career families. The purpose of the study was to develop a comprehensive theoretical model which explains the complex interrelationships among power structure, division of household labor, role conflict, marital satisfaction, and stress.;Using the data collected by nonrandom sampling from 191 Korean dual-career couples living in Seoul, Korea, a theoretical model developed in this study was tested. In particular, the effects of different types of power which have not been previously studied (definitional power, personal power, and positional power) were explored. In order to examine gender differences, a male model and a female model were developed separately and compared.;For data analysis, a Covariance Structure Analysis was used. At first, the most adequate measurement models were found by means of Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Then, the best-fitting models for males and females were found through the structural sub-model comparison. As a result of structural analysis, significant relationships between the latent variables were found for the male and female models.;As a result of comparing the male and female models, four significant common relationships were found: (1) Greater personal power increases marital satisfaction. (2) Higher level of inter-role conflict increases stress levels. (3) A husband's greater resource power reduces his share of housework, while a wife's greater resource power increases her share. (4) A husband's greater share of housework reduces his intra-role conflict, whereas a wife's greater share increases her intra-role conflict. The first two relationships can be generalized across genders. The last two relationships, which are also significant for both males and females, differ in the direction of the associations.;With the exception of these four common relationships, the analyses revealed substantial gender differences in dual-career family life and marital relationships experienced by husbands and wives. Several strategies to alleviate the difficulties experienced by dual-career couples were suggested for social work practice, and implications for social policy development were discussed.