Dual-career families

Introduction Unlike in the past, when the institution of marriage was primarily based on the typical, patriarchal, traditional family, where the father was the breadwinner and the mother was the homemaker, many families have now transitioned into modern day dual-career households. These couples are both highly accomplished and have established their own personal professional identities. In 1998, dueal-earner couple actually outnumbered “traditional” families nearly three to one (U.S.BureauoftheCensus, 1998). Despite these substantivechanges to the family unit, The traditional breadwinner (the father) and homemaker (mother) models continue to be the socially accepted, preferred family. Dating all the way back to the days of the industrial era, women slowly began to work outside of their homes as a way to provide supplemental income for their families. This was also a great way to obtain their resources and independence.
Women Filtering into the Workplace Although there appearsto be more and more woment hat have entered the workforce in the last few decades, the “role of women in the academic arena is still being negotiated, and the outcomes that exist for them may be worse if they are wives in a dual-career partnership” (Norell & Norell, 1996). In fact, many institutions have already implemented policies that are designed to prohibit the hiring of both husband and wife working together. In some cases, they try not to hire women at all. It was not until the early 1970s that many institutions discouraged couples from working together. The Norell (1996) studies revealed that “anti-nepotism policies subjected faculty to practices and decisions regarding employment men and women from the same family” ( ). Despite the effortsof anumber of schools that implement dual-career programs and benefits for working parents, they are so newthat verylittle systemic assessment has been reported. In the Bird & Schnurman (2005) expose, there was no mention of any of