Career and Marriage

Career and Marriage Does healthy career equal a broken marriage? Do we all think this way? There are lots of arguments on this issue; everyone has a different a different idea. Women entered workforce when World War II began, while men took off to serve in the army. The world was really different for those women at that time period than their mothers or the women they used to be. It was also for women to work outside of the house and still be a perfect mom or a wife. They wanted to do both of the responsibility and still do their own job in the house. In the researches many scientist made it shows that successful women don’t have a successful marriage. They can’t balance the work outside and inside the house. Divorces have increased in especially in two career marriages. Even though researches show that career breaks the marriages, I cannot agree with the fact if wife and husband share all the responsibilities. According to Elizabeth Corcoran, career women are “not a high-school dropout minding a cash register. For our purposes, a career woman has a university-level (or higher) education, works more than 35 hours a week outside the home and makes more than $30,000 a year.” (Web) It’s a positive thing to have a career man or woman in a marriage and that the essence of good marriage is adopting to change (Web) On the other hand many support the view that healthy career equal unhealthy marriage. It could be balanced and have a successful career with a happy marriage. If having a good career makes us a bad wife then what is a good husband does? If a marriage isn’t based on helping each other and supporting each other’s rights than there won’t be a happy marriage among us, it’s every women right to have a career that doesn’t make them a bad wife.
According to Michael Noer, marrying a career woman is asking for trouble he says that: “Most studies and statistics show that men marrying career women have a higher risk of having a rocky marriage and lower overall value of marriage.” Also “professional women are more likely to get divorced, more likely to cheat, less likely to have children, and if they do have kids, they are more likely to be unhappy about it.” Even feminist women “are happier when their husbands are primary head owners.” He also makes a strong statement that the more successful a career woman is, the more likely she will become dissatisfied with her husband. (Web) Risk for a rocky marriage shouldn’t be this easy to explain, just because women and men both work in the family and women is acting a little feminist this doesn’t take their relationship in a bad way. Maybe it’s true that a career successful woman won’t have many kids as much as a normal housewife and that’s normal because having to deal with a bust career isn’t as easy as being a housewife. Walles researched on 630 lawyers about effect of their careers in their life: career affects the quality of family life for both men and women but it is especially a concern for women. Career people can’t find time for household chores. About 50% of those studied used paid help, such as nanny, house cleaning service, or yard work. Women might ask for help from their husband and maybe even want to share the chores with them. This might sound like its making them a bad wife but actually not. Marriage is all about taking responsibility and sharing. Lawyers who work full-time, especially female lawyers, are dissatisfied with the amount of time they spend with their children, also the quality of time spent with their children was affected negatively. “The time demands and priority attached to practicing law often interfere with lawyers’ family time. Lawyers in this study are generally dissatisfied with the amount of time they spend with their spouse and/or their children and they often feel they are too tired to enjoy the time they are able to spend together. A general concern raised by many of the lawyers is the difficulty for women in combining both a successful career in law and raising a family, other women attempt to balance work and family by working reduced hours. Most of the women surveyed rely on a nanny to provide a care for their children while they are at work. Many of the men in this study have a wife who does not have a full time career and who stays home to care for their children.” (Web) This is not a fortunate life to live with because you don’t get to spend quality time with your family and even get tired when you have time to do so. It should be able to balance in some way that everything could work out. Having a successful career shouldn’t affect the marriage in a bad way it also have a good side of it? By careful cherry picking of various sociological factoids from research institutes over the past five years, Noer has found that women who undertake paid employment are more likely to fall out of love with their husbands, to be unfaithful, to have fewer children and to be unhappy about staying at home with said children, and - as career women spend 1.9 fewer hours every week wielding a mop and duster than their non-career-driven counterparts, "Even your house will be dirtier." (Noer) “For some years there has been a good deal of concern about the problems women encounter combining career and family, in part because of the difficulties of doing justice to both and in part because of the strains on individuals who do combine both.”(Marianne A. Ferber, and Carole A. Green,) As a conclusion there is no such a thing as successful career equal unhealthy marriage. If both sides share the responsibilities and help each other out there shouldn’t be much problem. If they are both on the same level for education plus career it’s even better. But I do not agree with the fact that if there is a good career in women life, she can’t be a good wife or a mother or a housewife.

Works Cites
A.Ferber, Marianne, and A. Green, Carole. “Career or Family: What Choices Do College Women
Have?” Journal of Labor Research (March, 2003):144-151. Springer New York. Web. 03 June, 2012.
Corcoran, Elizabeth. “Don’t Marry a Lazy Man.”. Career and Marriage. Farbes.com 2006. Web. 13 June 2012
Eschholz, Paul, and Rosa, Alfred. Subject and Strategy: A Writer’s Reader 11th Ed. Boston/ New York: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2007. Print.
Noer, Michael. “Don’t Marry Career Women.” Career and Marriage. Farbes.com 2006. Web. 13 June 2012.
Wallace, Jean E., and Young, Marisa C. “Parenthood and Productivity: A Study of Demands, Resources and Family-Friendly Firms.” Journal of Vocational Behavior (February, 2008): p 110 -122. ERIC. Web. 01 June, 2012