The roles of expatriates' spouses among dual career couples

Mäkelä, Liisa; Känsälä, Marja; Suutari, Vesa

doi:10.1108/13527601111126012

Cited by 79 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…It is argued that dual‐career couples (DCCs), which it is suggested have made up around 25% of the expatriate population over the past decade (Brookfield, ), pose a challenge for international companies that must maintain an internationally mobile workforce (Ravasi, Salamin, & Davoine, ; Selmer & Leung, ; Shaffer, Kraimer, Chen, & Bolino, ). The limited research evidence on the experiences of such international couples has prompted frequent calls for further research (Harvey, Novicevic, & Breland, ; Huffman & Frevert, ; Känsälä, Mäkelä, & Suutari, ; Lauring & Selmer, ; Mäkelä, Känsälä, & Suutari, ; Selmer & Leung, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repatriation of international dual‐career couples

Kierner

Suutari

2017

Thunderbird Intl Bus Rev

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Combining the realities of dual‐career couples (DCCs) and the requirements of international careers can be difficult. In order to improve the understanding of the repatriation experiences of international DCCs, we conducted interviews with both partners in 14 DCCs. Contrary to expectations, the majority of the interviewed couples reported very successful repatriation experiences, and only a few adjustment challenges were raised. The interviews address the factors explaining such repatriation adjustment issues, and also elicit four key factors (active self‐management of the expatriation process, earlier experience of expatriation and repatriation, the successful integration of work life and family life, and the realization of dual‐career interests upon repatriation) connected with successful repatriation adjustment experiences.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repatriation of international dual‐career couples

Kierner

Suutari

2017

Thunderbird Intl Bus Rev

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“…Recent research findings suggest that career and family are not separated, and that the relationship between them is multidimensional: not only do women's career experiences and outcomes affect their experience of family life, but also vice versa (Ruderman et al, 2002;Greenhaus & Singh, 2004;Rothbard et al, 2005;Greenhaus & Powell, 2006;Greenhaus & Foley, 2007). Despite this growing interest in the effect which the family has on a woman's career (Powell & Mainiero, 1992;Blair-Loy, 2003;Guillaume & Pochic, 2009;Mäkelä et al, 2011), previous research has paid little attention to what is meant by family, and has assumed a simple and unambiguous understanding of the term. With some few exceptions (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narratives by women managers about spousal support for their careers

Heikkinen

Lämsä

Hiillos

2014

Scandinavian Journal of Management

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In this article we present a qualitative study of spousal support for the careers of women managers. The research material consists of the narratives of 25 women managers in Finland.The study has two main implications. Firstly, unlike previous studies, we use a narrative approach to demonstrate that a woman manager's career and spousal support are experienced as ambiguous and evolving over the career. The support was constructed by the women managers as flourishing, irrelevant, deficient or inconsistent. Secondly, to increase our knowledge about gender relations, we combine discussion of the topic with gender order analysis and suggest that gender order is critical for an understanding of the nature of spousal support. We conclude that a male spouse who is willing to break the traditional gender order and provide his wife with various forms of support is often constructed as having a positive influence on the career of his woman manager wife. The study calls attention to families as sites of doing gender.

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“…This powerlessness is imposed by gender-role ideologies that portray women as the primary care provider and men as the primary breadwinner. In line with previous research [41,42], trailing women in this study made the choice to go overseas based on the viewpoint that their role in the family, in the reproductive realm, is subordinate to their husband's role in the working world, in the productive realm. Their motivations were centered on the family benefits having to do with nurturing, not just economics; but to ensure the husband's satisfaction, to provide better educational opportunities for the children, or to decrease work-family tension by becoming stayat-home mothers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

The Voice of Trailing Women in the Decision to Relocate: Is it Really a Choice?

Slobodin¹

2017

People's Movements in the 21st Century - Risks, Challenges and Benefits

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The reasons for migration among highly skilled couples are economic as well as noneconomic. However, our understanding of the motivations of trailing wives remains somewhat limited, especially given their loss of personal, professional, and social resources during the relocation. This chapter explores the motivations of women to relocate for their husband's work. It examines how gender ideologies weave with the decision to relocate, and how women's considerations and preferences are taken into account during this process. This study included depth interviews with 12 trailing mothers in the Netherlands and in the United States during 2015-2016. Interviews were performed faceto-face or by video chat. The study used an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Narratives analyses revealed that most trailing wives exerted very limited agency during the decision process and felt that they do not have any realistic alternatives to relocation. This powerlessness was imposed by gender-role ideologies that portray women as the primary care provider and men as the primary breadwinner. Thus, women's motivations to go overseas were primarily centered on family benefits, such as improving the family's financial status or supporting their husband's career. These findings suggest that societal factors, mainly gender, significantly diminish the actual choice options available to trailing wives.

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The roles of expatriates' spouses among dual career couples

Cited by 79 publications

References 26 publications

Repatriation of international dual‐career couples

Repatriation of international dual‐career couples

Narratives by women managers about spousal support for their careers

The Voice of Trailing Women in the Decision to Relocate: Is it Really a Choice?

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