Individual Propensities for Emotional Supportiveness within a Dual Career Context: Work and Non‐work Reactions

One challenge increasingly arising in individuals' personal lives is balancing life style and career to maintain a satisfactory long‐term relationship with a spouse who also has a career. According to the Bureau of Census, there are more than 26 million married women in the workforce. By 1982 over half of all married women were employed outside the home, and fewer than 15 per cent of all US households acknowledged the father as sole wage earner and the mother as full‐time homemaker. The unprecedented increase in the number of dual career families (from 9.3 million in 1950 to over 13.4 million in 1960, and 26.8 million in 1984) suggests a need to know more about the demands facing such households. Relatively few studies have investigated the relationships of work and non‐work factors within the two provider or dual career family context. Moreover, much of the existing research on dual careers is lacking in methodological rigour.