Gender differences in correlates of marital satisfaction

Abstract

A sample of 51 couples was used to test the hypothesis that previously; reported gender differences in the utility of different predictors of marital satisfaction would not appear in dual‐career couples where husbands and wives both have high commitment to their work relative to their family. From an initial sample of 89 couples, 25 dual‐career couples and 26 traditional couples were selected on the basis of the relative commitments to work and family of each partner. A comparison of the correlates of marital satisfaction among husbands and wives in these two subsamples provided some support for the hypothesis. In traditional couples, discrepancy between preferred and actual roles, and appraisal of partner's performance of sex‐typed roles were more highly related to females' than to males' marital satisfaction, while job satisfaction was a significant correlate of marital satisfaction among males but not among females. These gender differences were not observed in dual‐career couples. Self‐esteem was related similarly to marital satisfaction among husbands and wives in both subsamples.