Married Women's Economic Dependency in the Netherlands, 1979-1991

Abstract

The present paper offers a replication of an analysis by Sørensen and McLanahan (1987) of 1940-1980 USA data on trends in married women's economic dependency, this time using Dutch income data for 1979-1991. The results show that in the Netherlands, as opposed to the USA, a vast majority of the wives are still completely or strongly dependent on their husband's income. Yet, also Dutch wives' economic dependency is decreasing at a significant rate. Despite clear life course differences that yet seem to persist, we observe declining levels of dependency within each age group. This declining trend seems to reflect mostly changes in married women's employment status over time. An implication of the reported trend, however, is that it becomes increasingly important to study the influence of the social position of both partners.