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The data used in this study were obtained from the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. The data were originally collected by the Center for Human Resource Research, Ohio State University. Neitherthe original collectors of the data nor the Consortium bear any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented in this paper. In a study of a national random sample of mature male managerial, professional, and blue-collarworkers, the positive effects of being married and the negative effects of having a working wife on both occupational status and wage attainment were observed most strongly for the professional and managerial subsamples. These results are consistent with both a conformance-to-social expectations and wife-as-career resource arguments, but not as consistent with either human capital/market-signalling or distributive justice arguments. The effects of specific organizational tenure, education, and socioeconomic origins on both forms of attainment tended to be stronger for managers than for professionals, and, in turn, than for the blue-collar respondents. These results are consistent with the different need for control, given the uncertainty of evaluation and performance and importance of the jobs (higher for managers and professionals than for others), and the different mechanisms for achieving control. Professional control is achieved more through extraorganizational mechanisms, while managerial control is achieved through background, certification, and tenure, which tend to be associated with compliance to the normative structure.
Pfeffer et al. (Mon,) studied this question.