Social Work Today E-Zine

Sociological research has shown that when couples move, the husband's career gets a boost, while the wife's career suffers. A University of Iowa professor investigated the reason behind the phenomenon and discovered that couples tend to put more emphasis on the man's career, even if the wife works full-time and is college-educated.

Kimberlee Shauman, associate professor of sociology at the University of California at Davis, and Mary Noonan, associate professor of sociology in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, reported the findings on their study on family migration in a recent issue of Social Forces. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, an annual survey that tracks families over a 30-year period, they examined the experiences of 5,072 working men and 4,120 working women between ages 25 and 59, all of whom were married. They compared the employment status and salaries of those who moved from one metropolitan area to another (655 men, 371 women) to those who stayed put.

They found that a year after the move, nearly all of the men remained employed, but the women who moved were 22 percentage points less likely to remain employed compared to women who didn't move. The men who moved boosted their salary by an average of $3,000 that year, compared with an average increase of only $700 for men who stayed put. But women who moved reported average salary increases of $750 less than women who stayed put. In future research, Noonan would like to design a qualitative study to find out how couples weigh decisions on whose career matters more.

— Source: University of Iowa Health Sciences