The Cost of Career Equality: A Personal Response to "Academic Couples: Problems and Promises"

Foell, Kristie A.

doi:10.2307/1348184

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Participants in other studies of commuter marriage have talked about the social costs of having a restricted social life and not fitting the cultural norm for married couples, including perceptions of being deviant (Foell, 1998;Rhodes, 2002). Gerstel and Gross (1984) found commuter couples had less contact with friends after the commuting arrangement commenced, partly due to giving priority to the marriage when spouses were together, but also due to the social discomfort of interacting as "married singles" during the week (p. 84).…”

Section: (Gendered) Societal Expectations Of Caregiving and Commuter mentioning

confidence: 99%

“How Do You Get Two Houses Cleaned?”: Accomplishing Family Caregiving in Commuter Marriages

Bergen

Kirby

McBride

2007

Journal of Family Communication

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This interpretive study focused on messages reported by commuter wives from social network members concerning unpaid family labor, including domestic work and relational work with spouses and children, and wives' subsequent communication about the accomplishment of such labor within their marriages and families. We conducted a thematic analysis of interview transcripts with commuting wives from five focus groups (n = 25) and 50 individual interviews through the lens of gendered role expectations. We found commuter wives received messages from social network members portraying men as incapable of family labor and expressing traditional gendered expectations for wives to perform caregiving. Commuting wives discussed how they and their families implemented several strategies for accomplishing the domestic chores of family labor. In addition, many couples needed to negotiate new strategies for relational maintenance, and communication emerged as a discrete form of caregiving labor. In spite of the fact that these wives were resisting cultural expectations for married women by commuting to pursue their own careers, the findings of this study illustrate tensions in the (re)production of traditional gendered expectations for unpaid family labor for commuter wives.

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Section: (Gendered) Societal Expectations Of Caregiving and Commuter mentioning

confidence: 99%

“How Do You Get Two Houses Cleaned?”: Accomplishing Family Caregiving in Commuter Marriages

Bergen

Kirby

McBride

2007

Journal of Family Communication

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“…There has been anecdotal evidence that women commuters receive more unsupportive messages from members of their social networks than do men (Foell, 1998;Goodrick, 1980;Grove & Horm-Wingerd, 1991;Rabe, 2001;Winfield, 1985). Because women in our culture are expected to place family over career (Bellah et al, 1985), those who give priority to their professional lives by adopting a commuting arrangement may be particularly subject to criticism from members of their social networks.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Negotiating a “Questionable” Identity: Commuter Wives and Social Networks

Bergen

2010

Southern Communication Journal

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This study investigated interactions between commuter wives and their social networks. Five focus groups involving 25 women provided insight into interactions of women in commuter marriages with members of their social networks. The focus-group findings provided the basis for individually interviewing 50 women in commuter marriages. Using interpretive thematic analysis, results revealed that questions were the most common type of message commuter wives reported receiving from others. Question content involved (a) requests for general and logistical information, (b) determination of the reasons for the commuting arrangement, and (c) negative evaluations of commuter marriages. These findings support the interpretation that the term ''commuter wife'' represents a socially unintelligible identity to many social network members; for women, being a commuting professional and being a wife are incongruent. This study advances our understanding of how individuals in this context negotiate an unconventional identity in social interaction.Commuter marriage is a form of long-distance relationship (LDR) that has proliferated in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century (Aylor, 2003;Sahlstein, 2004;Stafford, 2005). Stafford noted the ways long-distance relationships challenge conventions for close relationships: Long distance and cross-residential relationships occur in opposition to many U.S. cultural assumptions about the nature of communication and close relationships. Such presumptions especially relevant to LDRs include: frequent FtF [Face to face] communication is necessary for close relational ties; geographic proximity is necessary for relationships to be emotionally close . . . and family members, especially married parents, and parents and young children, are supposed to share a residence.

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The Cost of Career Equality: A Personal Response to "Academic Couples: Problems and Promises"

Cited by 2 publications

References 1 publication

“How Do You Get Two Houses Cleaned?”: Accomplishing Family Caregiving in Commuter Marriages

“How Do You Get Two Houses Cleaned?”: Accomplishing Family Caregiving in Commuter Marriages

Negotiating a “Questionable” Identity: Commuter Wives and Social Networks

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