Table Of ContentPROFESSIONAL WORK AND MARRIAGE
An East-West Comparison
Sf Antony's/Macmillan Series
General editor: Archie Brown, Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford
This new series contains academic books written or edited by members of
St Antony's College, Oxford, or by authors with a special association with the
College. The titles are selected by an editorial board on which both the College
and the publishers are represented.
Titles already published or in the press are listed below, and there are numerous
further titles in preparation.
S. B. Burman CHIEFDOM POLITICS AND ALIEN LAW
Wilhelm Deist THE WEHRMACHT AND GERMAN
REARMAMENT
Ricardo Ffrench-Davis and LATIN AMERICA AND THE NEW
Ernesto Tironi (editors) INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Richard Holt SPORT AND SOCIETY IN MODERN
FRANCE
Albert Hourani EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST:
THE EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN
MIDDLE EAST
Paul Kennedy and Anthony NATIONALIST AND RACIALIST
Nicholls (editors) MOVEMENTS IN BRITAIN AND
GERMANY BEFORE 1914
Richard Kindersley (editor) IN SEARCH OF EUROCOMMUNISM
Gisela C. Lebzelter POLITICAL ANTI-SEMITISM IN
ENGLAND, 1918-1939
C. A. MacDonald THE UNITED STATES, BRITAIN AND
APPEASEMENT,1936-1939
Marilyn Rueschemeyer PROFESSIONAL WORK AND
MARRIAGE: AN EAST -WEST
COMPARISON
David Stafford BRITAIN AND EUROPEAN
RESISTANCE, 1940-1945
Rosemary Thorp and INFLATION AND STABILISATION IN
Laurence Whitehead LATIN AMERICA
(editors)
Rudolf L. Tokes (editor) OPPOSITION IN EASTERN EUROPE
PROFESSIONAL WORK
AND MARRIAGE
An East-West Comparison
Marilyn Rueschemeyer
St Antony's
© Marilyn Rueschemeyer 1981
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1981
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1981 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-1-349-16604-6 ISBN 978-1-349-16602-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-16602-2
For Julia and Simone, with love and hope
Contents
Acknowledgements
Xl
I THE PROBLEM STATED: AMBITIONS AND
WORK PRESSURES, THEIR ORIGINS AND
CONSEQUENCES IN CAPITALIST AND
SOCIALIST SOCIETIES
Professional work and the development of ambition in
the United States 6
The effects of work pressures and ambitions on per-
sonal life in the United States 8
The comparison with Eastern European socialist
societies 10
Work in the Soviet Union and the German Democratic
Republic 13
2 'NO, MY WIFE DOESN'T WORK - SHE'S A
HOUSEWIFE': AMERICAN SINGLE-CAREER
FAMILIES 23
Introduction 23
The work situation 26
Sources of tensions at work 28
Background of the professionals 35
The schooling of American professional men 38
Effects of tensions of family relations: the wives'
perspective 41
Effects of tensions on family relations: the male
professionals' perspective 48
The effects of work pressures and tensions on
friendships 59
Conclusion 61
Appendix: Notes on interviewing 64
Interview guide 68
vii
viii CONTENTS
3 'I AM A PROFESSIONAL, TOO': AMERICAN
DUAL-CAREER FAMILIES 71
Introduction 71
Family background and the roots of occupational
aspiration 72
The school experiences of men and women in dual-
career families 78
The original 'contract' 81
The situation at work 85
The over-scheduled family 88
The effects of work on the marital relationship 90
The effects of work pressures on friendships 105
Conclusion 108
Appendix: Notes on interviewing 111
4 DOES SOCIALISM MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
DUAL-CAREER FAMILIES IN THE SOVIET
UNION AND THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLIC 112
Introduction 112
Occupational origins of the respondents 116
Education in the Soviet Union and in the German
Democratic Republic 119
Supports in socialist countries for working men and
women 128
Role conceptions of professional men and women 135
The world of work 138
The effects of work pressures on personal relationships 147
Appendix: Notes on the Eastern European interviews 165
5 CONCLUSION: PROFESSIONAL WORK AND
PERSONAL LIFE IN CAPITALIST AND
SOCIALIST SOCIETIES 170
Notes 180
Bibliography 184
Index 191
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to Gordon Fellman, Kristine
Rosenthal, Charlotte Weissberg and George Ross for their advice
and strong encouragement throughout this research. I also thank
Kurt Wolff, who wrote on my behalf to a friend in the German
Democratic Republic, and Janet Giele, Peter Evans, Josef
Gugler, Ann Seidman and Richard Quinney, who made very
helpful comments on the manuscript. Archie Brown's suggestions
for the Eastern European sections of the manuscript were of great
value; for his kindness as well as the warm hospitality of all my
colleagues at St Antony's College, Oxford, I am indeed grateful.
My husband, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, shared my excitement,
ideas and worries about this project from its beginning and
continued to be involved and encouraging despite his own
professional commitments. Without his support and without the
patience and practical help of our daughters, Julia and Simone, I
would have never completed this project.
Finally, during this research I met men and women who not
only answered my questions but tried to share a part of their lives,
their ideas, their dreams of a good society with me. I will never
forget them.
Providence, Rhode Island MARIL YN RUESCHEMEYER
ix
1 The problem stated:
Ambitions and work pressures,
their origins and consequences
in Capitalist and Socialist
Societies
Strains within the family, tensions and problems between
husbands and wives as well as between parents and children are a
recurrent theme in private conversations, journals of opinion and
the lecture circuit. There is a sense that the roles of men and
women are undergoing a profound change and that life in the
family is becoming increasingly difficult. Yet our understanding
of these issues is very limited. Many realize that the individualistic
formula of common wisdom, 'it all depends on the people
involved', is not sufficient. However, public debates which go
beyond such simplistic commentary often focus narrowly on the
family as it is presently structured. The question then becomes:
what precisely is wrong with the contemporary family? The more
conservative answers urge a return to and a revitalization of the
inherited forms of marriage and family life. Thus, the 'Total
Woman' (Morgan, 1976) is to recreate a loving family and a
romantic marriage by submitting herself to the needs of her
husband, by organizing her work at home so that it does not
overwhelm her and by trying to introduce variety and surprise
into her personal and erotic style in order to keep her husband's
interest when he returns from work.
Increasing numbers, especially of educated women, are sym
pathetic to the feminist argument that it is the very role of the
woman in the family as it is presently structured that is at the heart
of her difficulties, and ultimately of the difficulties of her husband
and children as well. The woman - and her family - would be far
better off if she were able to turn some of her energies and interests
elsewhere, in particular to the work place where she could directly
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