On the Effects of Wives' Employment on Marital Adjustment and Companionship

Abstract

Wives' dramatic increase in labor-force participation over the past 30 years has stirred widespread controversy over its effects on the marital relationship. National survey data were used to separately assess the effects of wives' employment and their degree of interest in their work activity on 14 comparatively reliable indicators of marital adjustment and companionship, for both male and female respondents. No evidence was found for any effect of wives' employment or degree of interest in their work activity on marital adjustment and companionship, whether determined on the basis of husbands' or wives' responses. The absence of effects suggests that the extensive controversy over wives' increasing labor-force participation has resulted from some unwarranted assumptions about the impact of wives' working on marital adjustment.