Women still living in a man`s world – career-wise

Washington: Years of growth may have earned women their place at the office, but when it comes to home, their careers take a backseat to their husband`s job, a study has claimed. In the study, Youngjoo Cha, Cornell doctoral candidate in sociology, found that having a husband who works 50 hours or more per week can hurt women`s careers.

Women have less time available to do paid work because they still are expected to do more housework and perform most of the caregiving responsibilities, the research claimed. The study "Reinforcing Separate Spheres: The Effect of Spousal Overwork on Men`s and Women`s Employment in Dual-Earner Households" has been published in the April 2010 edition of American Sociological Review, a peer-reviewed journal, published by the American Sociological Association. To reach the conclusion, Cha`s work looked at 8,484 professional workers and 17,648 nonprofessional workers from dual-earner families, using data collected by the US Census Bureau. Her analysis shows that overall, having a husband who works 60 hours or more per week increases a woman`s odds of quitting by 42 percent. However, for husbands, having a wife who works 60 hours or more per week does not significantly affect a man``s odds of quitting. The odds of quitting increase by 51 percent for professional women whose husbands work 60 hours or more per week, and for professional mothers the odds they will quit their jobs jumps 112 percent. By contrast, for professional men, both parents and non-parents, the effects a wife working long hours are negligible. Cha says: "As long work-hours introduce conflict between work and family into many dual-earner families, couples often resolve conflict in ways that prioritize husbands` careers. Having a husband who works long hours significantly increases a woman`s likelihood of quitting, while having a wife who works long hours does not affect a man`s likelihood of quitting. "This effect is magnified among workers in professional and managerial occupations, where the norm of overwork and the culture of intensive parenting tend to be strongest. The findings suggest that the prevalence of overwork may lead many dual-earner couples to return to a separate spheres arrangement -- breadwinning men and homemaking women." ANI