Conflict Between Major Life Roles: Women and Men in Dual Career Couples

Abstract

An investigation of the newly emerging pattern of career aspirations in women, in which both a demanding profession and family life are assumed, was conducted within a framework of interrole conflict among major life roles and its correlates. Subjects were 28 dual career couples who responded to an anonymous questionnaire. Of specific interest were the areas and degree of interrole conflict, in addition to their relationship to gender, parent hood, level of career aspirations, spouse's emotional support of career pursuit, and attitudes toward the roles of women. Surprisingly, the prediction of gender differences in regard to areas and correlates of interrole conflict were not supported. The one exception was level of career aspiration, where high aspirations were negatively related to role conflict for men but positively related to role conflict for women. Strikingly different patterns of conflict, however, were found as a function of the presence or absence of children.