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Show B..I.I.I.IBsssssssssBIMi U.S. economy creates dual -worker marriages By KELLY D. DAVIS College of Family Life Utah State University The majority of married women ihe U.S. are now in the labor J, either because they want to or out of economic necessity. This has had an important impact on the "traditional' American marriage. mar-riage. If you, like most Americans, are already in a dual-worker marriage or are considering becoming involved in-volved in a dual-worker marriage, t here are some ways you can maximize max-imize the positive effects and minimize the negative: Make time for shared leisure activities. ac-tivities. This is essential to maintaining main-taining a strong, rewarding marriage. mar-riage. In dual-income marriages, the marital relationship can be strengthened when partners share common experiences and interests. This fosters a greater mutual regard for one another. Focus on your common work-related work-related interests. This can include anything from meeting your spouse for lunch to offering support, busi ness contacts and career advice. Express spousal appreciation and support for the rewards (financial (finan-cial and other) each person's employment brings. As much as possible, leave your work stress at the office. Much marital discord is caused by misdirected work stress. Allocate domestic responsibilities respon-sibilities fairly. Strive for a feeling of equity, rather than, complete equality, which is extremely difficult to achieve. Each partner needs to reevaluate their traditional role expectations and modify them to fit the dual-income reality. It is important that each spouse feels recognition and nurturance for their household contributions. Allow for flexibility and compromise com-promise in roles and duties. Maintain friendship and kinship relationships. When both partners work, there is limited time available for friends, family and each other. As a result, these relationships are often sacrificed along with sleep, communication and intimate relations-all of which are necessary to keeping marriages vital. Maintain a balance of activities. Discuss marriage and family priorities with respect to work priorities. Work at maintaining emotional and physical intimacy. Continually work at maintaining maintain-ing open and good communication. There is little time for indirectness and misunderstandings. Examine closing the gap between be-tween psychologically-perceived roles ("I am the breadwinner. Her income is extra") and actual roles ("We need both incomes to maintain main-tain our standard of living; therefore, we are both breadwinners.") bread-winners.") Avoid power struggles. Acknowledge Ac-knowledge that both have a say in decisions. It is a difficult task to resolve whose occupation comes first and how career advancement for both partners should be handled. Conflicts over household or financial finan-cial decisions are also difficult to resolve when both partners have income-associated "power." Each spouse needs to be willing to compromise com-promise and do what is best for the relationship and family. The effects on a marriage of both partners working can be either positive or negative, depending on how much effort the partners are willing to expend to achieve harmony. har-mony. Most of the negative effects will be alleviated with communication, communica-tion, consideration for each other and attention to the marriage and other important relationships. i i |
