Dual Career Pathways: The Occupational Attainment of Married Couples in Hungary

This paper explores career mobility in the family, between the time of marriage and the time of data collection. The upward and downward moves of husbands and of wives are analysed separately, in the light of various theoretical frameworks, such as advantage redistribution, advantage accumulation, and status similarity. Empirically, the statistical models consider cohort and age differences, work experience, the social characteristics of respondents (education and occupation), the number and age of the children in the household, and the characteristics of the spouse. Another factor expected to be crucial to the chances of a person experiencing mobility is the occupational heterogeneity or homogeneity of the marriage. The data analysed are taken from the Hungarian Social Mobility Survey for 1992. The probability of upward and downward mobility by partners during the marriage has been subjected to event-history analysis. This reveals strong evidence that the resources of the spouse have positive effects on the occupational success of both husbands and wives, which supports the process of advantage accumulation in Hungarian households.With comparative advantages, results do not support advantage redistribution but status similarity as the framework for couples' career mobility.