Careers of Couples in Contemporary Society From Male Breadwinner to Dual-Earner Families

by Blossfeld, Hans-Peter; Drobniv c, Sonja

• ISBN13: 9780199244911
• ISBN10: 019924491X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-12-13
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This is the first systematic international comparative study of the transformation of couples' careers in modern societies. The countries included are Germany, the Netherlands, the Flemish part of Belgium, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, andChina. Using longitudinal data, this book explores what has and what has not changed for couples in various countries due to women's greater involvement in paid employment. It provides evidence that despite substantial improvement in women's educational attainment and career opportunities in all thecountries studied, dimensions of role specialization in dual-earner couples have not undergone transformation to the same extent. Gender role change within the family has generally been asymmetric, so that housework and childcare primarily remain 'women's work'. There are, however, also significantinstitutional differences among modern societies which determine a country's timing, speed, and pattern of change from the traditional male breadwinner to the dual-earner family model. In particular, the impact of males' resources on their female partners' employment careers is dependent on thewelfare state regime. In conservative and Mediterranean welfare state regimes, women's paid employment is negatively correlated with the occupational position of their husbands. In liberal welfare state regimes, no impact of husbands' resources on their wives' labour force participation could bedetected. In the social democratic welfare state regime and generally in (former) socialist countries, husbands' resources have a positive effect on their wives' employment so that occupational resources cumulate in dual-earner families.

Table of Contents

Introduction A Cross-National Comparative Approach to Couples' Careers, Hans-Peter Blossfeld and Sonja Drobnic

Theoretical Perspectives on Couples' Careers, Hans-Peter Blossfeld and Sonja Drobnic

The 'Conservative' Welfare State Regime Spouses' Employment Careers in (West) Germany, Hans-Peter Blossfeld

Couples' Labour Market Participation in the Netherlands

Couples' Careers in Flanders

The 'Mediterranean' Welfare State Regime The Employment Behaviour of Married Women in Italy

Spouses' Careers in Spain

The 'Liberal' Welfare State Regime Married Women's Employment Patterns in Britain

Coupled Careers: Pathways Through Work and Marriage in the United States

The 'Social Democratic' Welfare State Regime Earnings as a Force of Attraction and Specialisation in Sweden

Work Careers of Married Women in Denmark

The (former) 'State Socialist' Regime Employment Patterns of Married Women in Poland

Employment Patterns in Hungarian Couples

Job Shift Patterns of Husbands and Wives in Urban China

Part Seven

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