Introduction to the special issue: Dual-career couples

Abstract

Dual career couples are experiencing a renewed attention by researchers for at least three different reasons. Firstly, the increasing women's labour force participation throughout the family formation years, particularly among well educated women, opens the question whether something has changed both in gender arrangements within couples and in career patterns in the labour market and particularly in the im- permeability of the glass ceiling that used to block women's upward mobility. Se- condly, when both partners in a household invest in paid work the question arises concerning who is going to do all the unpaid work otherwise performed by women, for the household but also for kin and sometimes community. What is the quality of life of households, communities, societies in a world where all adults invest most of their energies in paid work? Thirdly, the divergent patterns of women's labour force participation, together with the prevalence of homogamous marriages, raise con- cerns on the risks of a possible strengthening of social inequalities. As the interest for career couples remains fairly sustained and trespasses the boundaries of the sociology of the family within which has long remained confined, the dual career concept becomes however more elusive. Strictu senso, career couples should refer only to couples in which both partners are involved in an upward mobile professional trajectory (Hiller and Dyehouse 1987, Levy et al. in this issue). Neither all earner couples nor all the well-educated ones are necessarily also career ones in this sense. Clement and Clement (2001) add an additional requirement for being defined a career couple strictu senso: that of having children, that is of having caring responsibilities. According to their concept, there- fore, career couples are defined by the fact that both partners are highly quali- fied, and follow their career path while not renouncing having children and a satis- fying family life. On the basis of this narrow definition, the number of career couples might be quite small, and insufficient for a quantitative research approach. Furthermore, while research on career couples focuses mainly on the couple's dynamics and more or less asymmetrical interdependencies, the possibility that one or both the partner have a career does not depend only on negotiations and power relations within the couple, that is on its gender culture and arrangements. It de- pends also on the labour market and on the institutional framework within which couples develop their negotiations and take their decisions. The labour market and