Class Identification and Gender Role Norms among Employed Married Women

Abstract

The status-borrowing hypothesis asserts that when determining their class identification employed married women consider only their husbands characteristics while the status-sharing hypothesis argues that they consider both their own and their husbands characteristics. Both previous research and empirical data from the general Social Survey from 1974 to 1986 provide contradictory results 1st supporting 1 and then the other hypothesis. The author suggest how to resolve this issue by distinguishing between traditional and egalitarian gender role norms. Employed married women who believe in traditional gender role norms consider only their husbands characteristics in deciding upon their own class identification. In contrast employed married women who believe in egalitarian gender roles norms consider both their own and their husbands characteristics. (authors)