Trials and Tribulations in Coupling Careers

Focusing on how men and women's work and family careers are coupled, I put forth an analytical framework that integrates the seemingly disparate empirical evidence on the relationship between married women's employment and divorce into a more layered picture. The “coupled careers interface” framework incorporates three features. First, it is anchored at the couple level. Second, it specifically incorporates contingencies in outcome. Third, it focuses on the dynamics of the careers and their connections from the life course perspective. Combining sequence analysis and log-linear analysis techniques, I illustrate this framework using life history data from married couples in upstate New York. The results show that, depending on the ways in which careers are coupled, some marriages benefit from the dual-earner configuration, while others suffer. This counters the presumption of uniform trade-off. Also found is the asymmetric interdependence between men and women's work careers, especially in the context of the parallel family careers involving children.