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Title: Women's Employment, Time Expenditure and Divorce
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Spitze, Glenna D.
South, Scott J.
Women's Employment, Time Expenditure and Divorce
Journal of Family Issues 6 (1985): 307-239
Cohort(s): Mature Women, Young Women
Publisher: Sage Publications
Keyword(s): Divorce; Earnings, Wives; Household Demand; Husbands, Attitudes; Marital Instability; Work Hours/Schedule

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Past research on the relationship between wives' employment and divorce has focused on two types of explanations, those positing change motives regarding divorce and those suggesting changed opportunities. Without discounting totally the path from income to opportunity, we focus here on a somewhat neglected alternative, that leading from time constraints to changed motives toward maintaining a marriage. We argue that time spent by the wife working outside the home impedes the completion of tasks necessary to the maintenance of the household, and hence increases the probability of divorce. Using data from the Young and Mature Women samples of the NLS, we find that among employed women, hours worked has a greater impact on marital dissolution than do various measures of wife's earnings. In partial support of our hypotheses, the relationship between wife's hours worked and the probability of divorce is strongest for middle income families and families in which the husband disapproves of his wife's employment.
Bibliography Citation
Spitze, Glenna D. and Scott J. South. "Women's Employment, Time Expenditure and Divorce." Journal of Family Issues 6 (1985): 307-239.