Marriage and Women's Occupational Attainment in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Employing data from 12 industrial societies, the present paper investigates differences in the laborforce behavior, occupational distribution, and attainment patterns of ever and never married women. The analysis tests one explanation for occupational sex segregation-dual career theory, which attributes women's concentration in low-paying employment to gender differences in marital and childrearing responsibilities. The results for the twelve countries offer some support for the assertion that never married women are more similar to men than ever married women, but not in all respects related to their occupational behavior. Although marital responsibilities affect the extent to which women work and the kinds of jobs in which they are employed, these differences for the most part do not translate into differences in occupational prestige or wage rate. Thus, women's economic disadvantage, relative to men, cannot be attributed solely, or even in large measure, to gender differences in marital responsibilities. Never married women, who have no immediate marital responsibilities, do not fare much better than married women in their occupational attainment.