Male trailing spouses in the United Arab Emirates: adding novel insight to the prevailing expatriate spouse adjustment frameworks

Abstract

The number of female expatriates with male trailing partners has been increasing in recent years and it is likely that this trend will continue in the future. The present study attempts to comprehend the challenges in the adjustment process of Western male spouses during their time in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Instead of merely problematising this as an impediment to be managed, this study also contends that spouses are in fact partners who stand to gain as much as from the expatriation process as the expatriate employees themselves. Extending beyond the conventionally studied trailing female spouses, this paper considers Western male spouses of female expatriates working in the UAE where the domestic conditions are very different from those in China and the USA, countries have been the focus of most past research attention. This issue will pose a significant challenge for multinational corporations in the coming decade and failure to address this challenge could jeopardise their expansion endeavours in the countries like the UAE.