美双职家庭中丈夫事业优先

Women might be on a more even footing at work but at home their careers tend to take a backseat to their husband's job with women most likely to quit when both are working long hours, according to a U.S. study.

Researcher Youngjoo Cha, from Cornell University, found that working women with a husband who worked 50 hours or more a week found themselves still doing most of the housework and the care giving and were more likely to end up quitting their job.

An analysis of 8,484 professional workers and 17,648 nonprofessionals from dual-earner families showed that if women had a husband who worked 60 hours or more per week it increased the woman's odds of quitting her paid job by 42 percent.

Cha said the odds of quitting increased to 51 percent for professional women whose husbands work 60 hours or more per week, and for professional mothers the odds they would quit their jobs jumped 112 percent.

However, it did not significantly affect a man's odds of quitting his job if his wife worked 60 hours or more per week, according to the study published in the American Sociological Review in April.

For professional men, both parents and non-parents, the effects of a wife working long hours were negligible, according to the study called "Reinforcing Separate Spheres: The Effect of Spousal Overwork on Men's and Women's Employment in Dual-Earner Households."

"As long work-hours introduce conflict between work and family into many dual-earner families, couples often resolve conflict in ways that prioritize husbands' careers," Cha, who used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, said in a statement.

"This effect is magnified among workers in professional and managerial occupations, where the norm of overwork and the culture of intensive parenting tend to be strongest. The findings suggest that the prevalence of overwork may lead many dual-earner couples to return to a separate spheres arrangement -- breadwinning men and homemaking women."

美国一项研究显示，如今女性在职场中的地位可能有所提高，但在家里，她们的事业相比于丈夫而言仍处于次要地位。当夫妻双方的工作时间都很长的情况下，女方辞去工作的可能性更大。

康奈尔大学的研究人员查英珠发现，对于丈夫每周工作时间超过50个小时的职业女性而言，她们需要承担大部分家务和照顾家人的任务，所以更有可能辞掉工作。

一项对来自双职工家庭的8484名专业工作人员和17648名非专业人员的分析显示，对于丈夫每周工作时间超过60个小时的职场女性而言，她们辞掉工作的几率增加42%。

查说，丈夫每周工作60个小时以上的职业女性辞掉工作的几率增加到51%，而对于有孩子的职业女性而言，这一几率则猛增至112%。

但根据这项在《美国社会学评论》四月刊上发表的研究显示，如果妻子每周工作60个小时或以上，对男性辞职的几率却没有什么显著的影响。

这项名为“男女分工：配偶过度工作对双职家庭男性和女性职业的影响”的研究称，对于职业男性来说，不管家里是否已有孩子，妻子工作时间长对他们的影响可以忽略不计。

查使用的研究数据来源于美国人口普查局。查在一份声明说：“当长时间工作使双职工家庭出现职业和家庭冲突时，往往是优先考虑丈夫的事业。”

“这种情况对于从事专业工作和处于管理岗位的人来说尤为突出，因为这一人群最看重努力工作和的子女的培养。研究显示，过度工作状况的普遍存在会导致许多双职工夫妇回归到一种传统的男女分工的家庭模式——男主外，女主内。”

Vocabulary:

take a backseat: to allow somebody else to play a more active and important role in a particular situation than you do 允许他人领先；甘愿居于人下；退居幕后