The authors use assumptions from theories of gender and economic stratification to examine the linkage between patriarchal family structures and the employment experience of women and men by comparing job-related characteristics of spouses working for the same employer. Personnel data were used to develop a wife-husband occupational typology that became the basis for several middle range theoretical questions probing for evidence of (1) marital status differences in employment, (2) husband dominance in educational achievement and job selection, (3) family status consistency, and (4) gender discrimination. Findings suggest that all four phenomena are present, but variations in couple patterns show that economic factors take precedence over stereotyped gender roles in the family. Thus occupational differentiation between spouses appears to be decreasing.
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