Geographic Constraints on Married Women's Careers

Abstract

Data from 275 questionnaires and 38 interviews with “faculty wives,” plus 50 questionnaires from “faculty husbands” are analyzed to study how moves for a husband's job or lack of geographic mobility for a wife's own employment may affect women's careers. Women with advanced degrees and greater career commitment are found to experience greater geographic constraint. It is suggested that, as women become more professionalized in training and aspirations, geographic mobility may become a more salient problem in dual-career marriages if one or both spouses are in fields where the market is tight or where geographic moves are necessary for advancement.