Psychological attributes of career and noncareer married women

Women simultaneously involved in a marital relationship and a career attempt to blend a traditional female role with a traditional male role. Theory and research suggest that women who place themselves in this position may differ along a number of personality dimensions from women who adopt traditional social roles as homemakers and/or noncareer wage earners. For example, Burke and Weir (1976) found that women in dual career relationships expressed a lower need for intimacy and more masculine characteristics than the homemakers in their study. Hunt and Hunt (19 82) suggest that women in dual career relationships become "'sociological men'--persons who emphasize their public work lives and enjoy the resulting power and independence" (p. 50 4). Overall these suggestions and conclusions combine with others (i.e. Birnbaum, 1971; Holmstrom, 1972; Pepitone-Rockwell, 1980; Rice, 1979) to indicate that compared to their traditional counterparts, women involved in dual career relationships are lower in femininity and intimacy needs and higher in masculinity and achievement motivation.