The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

448 Chapter 12

As a greater portion of our population

moves into retirement, this period of life is

receiving more attention. Retirement can take

a variety of forms. Some people phase in their

retirement by reducing the hours they work,

whereas others opt for an abrupt retirement.

Because people are living longer, elderly

people can consider working after age 65.

A greater proportion of the elderly in the

workforce, however, reduces the number of

many hours a week women work. One study

showed that there were negative effects on

marriage when women worked more than 40

hours a week (Hyde, DeLamater, & Hewitt,

1998). By contrast, a study of female physi-

cians showed that more hours of paid em-

ployment was associated with higher marital

quality (Barnett & Gareis, 2002). The rea-

son seemed to be that husbands were more

involved in household labor when women

worked longer hours. Thus, again, the effects

of women working outside the home and

how many hours they work outside the home

are related to the control models shown in

Figures 12.3 and 12.4. To understand the full

effect of women working outside the home,

one has to take into consideration the effects

on domestic labor and relative income.

It is also important to consider whether

the couple wants the woman to be working.

Women may be working due to choice or due

to economic necessity. When women are em-

ployed out of economic necessity rather than

choice, they are less happy with their mar-

riages (Perry-Jenkins, Seery, & Crouter, 1992).

Women and men with traditional values also

may be less happy when women are engaged

in paid employment. There also may be prob-

lems when women and men do not agree as

to whether women should be working outside

the home. Conduct Do Gender 12.1 to find

out college students’ attitudes toward married

women’s paid employment.

Retirement

Imagine you are 55 years old, work full time,

and make $100,000 a year. Your boss calls you

into her office and says you can stop working,

keep your salary for two years, and then earn

two-thirds of your salary for the rest of your

life. Would you retire? The incentives to re-

tire can be strong in some industries.

DO GENDER 12.1

Attitudes Toward

Married Women’s Paid Employment

Interview a group of women and men

about whether they would be in favor of

a married woman working outside the

home. Start out by asking women the very

simple question, “If you get married, how

much would you want to work outside

the home?” For men, ask how much they

would want their wife to work outside the

home. Use a scale such as 1=not at all to

5 = very much.

Then, see if you can figure out what

conditions influence women’s and men’s

responses. Are there personality charac-

teristics that influence support for married

women working, such as whether their

mothers worked or whether they have tra-

ditional gender-role attitudes? Are there

characteristics of the situation that influ-

ence support, such as the presence of chil-

dren, the number of children, and the age

of children? What if the woman worked

more than 40 hours per week? What if she

made more money than her husband did?

Come up with some of your own qualifi-

cations. The goal is to try to describe how

supportive women and men are today

of married women working outside the

home and what limitations there are to

people’s support.

M12_HELG0185_04_SE_C12.indd 448 6/21/11 9:16 AM