Continuous Dual-Career Families: A Case Study

Intensive studies of the careers, family backgrounds, marital relationships, and domestic patterns of 10 continuous dual-career families (i.e., those where the wives interrupted their professional careers only minimally to have children) were made through an in-depth guided-interview approach. It was found that there was little integration of work situations, that the parents experienced severe overload problems, that kinship ties loosened and social life decreased. The wives, usually only children, came from a higher social and economically wealthier class than their husbands; they reverted to traditional sociocultural perceptions of their roles at home but, despite multiple role-cycling dilemmas, found that the intellectual and psychological benefits of their lifestyles far outweighed any disadvantages. Financial gain was not of motivational significance, and the dual-career pattern was not always financially rewarding. The families' child-rearing philosophies were similar, and there was no evidence to suggest that the children experienced any disadvantages caused by their parents' career pattern. All families were noticeably healthy and physically active.