A New Balance of Power? A Longitudinal Analysis of Couple’s Occupational Prestige and Subjective Well-being

Households with all adults employed will increase and women continue to reach more prestigious and higher-paying industrial jobs. This paper addresses the relationship between work of dual-earner couples and the way they feel about it given different family situations. We examine the impact of occupational prestige that is assumed to reflect women’s progress in reaching high-level positions, and the divergence or convergence of the partners’ prestige levels supposed to alleviate or cause tensions and, thus, well-being effects. Models will be designed focusing on the smallest available unit, the household, and account for different family situations. We estimate the relationship between partner’s occupational prestige levels and a) the couple satisfaction (i.e. partner satisfaction added up), and b) the relative satisfaction as the difference between the partner satisfaction scores. We expect occupational prestige of couples to increase couple and relative subjective well-being to the extent that it confirms existing gender roles. The higher women’s occupational prestige compared to their husbands the more they are likely to report high levels of satisfaction relative to their partners/husbands. However, we also expect that in couples where a female partner becomes professionally empowered, couple satisfaction will decrease.