Gender and Employment Status: The Impact On Marital Satisfaction

Although studies on marital satisfaction have an extensive history of scholarship in the social science field, current studies have lacked clarity about the effects of gender and outside labor employment on marital satisfaction. A lack of consensus remains as to gender\u27s effect on the marital union quality. Additionally, the impact on family life of wives entering the labor force received initial research attention in the early 1980s, but very few of these studies have been updated, and none of these studies have singularly focused on comparing a single employed spouse\u27s marital satisfaction to dually employed spouse\u27s marital satisfaction. To minimize the effect of confounding variables, participant criteria was outlined as husbands and wives in their first marriage, married eight years or less with at least one child. The Marital Satisfaction Inventory Revised was administered to 162 participants. To determine the main effects of gender, employment status or an interaction effect, participants were categorized into four groups: single earner males, single earner females, dual-earner males, and dual earner females. The results indicated that gender had a main effect on sexual dissatisfaction and employment status significantly impacted gender role orientation. An interaction effect was observed on two sub-scales