The Impact of Dual-Career Marriages on Female Professional Careers: An Empirical Test of a Parsonian Hypothesis

Abstract

This article reports results ofa five-year longitudinal study testing the Parsonian hypothesis predicting the mutual destructiveness of dual-career marriages. This research is specifically concerned with the impact of occupationally-specific dualcareer marriages on the career patterns of female sociologists. Comparisons were made between sociologist husbands, wives and other females in the profession. Career pattern parameters were measured in terms of (1) possession of Ph.D., (2) achievement of academic rank, (3) frequency of promotion, (4) degree of employment, and (5) career half-life or longevity. Findings strongly deny Parsons' earlier scepticism, and support an alternative hypothesis of professional-marital endogamy -that marriage to a professional colleague entails fertile interaction between spouses relevant to the profession, thus promoting the successful development of a wife's career.