Working Wives and Earnings Inequality Among Married Couples, 1967–84
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9256653 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Douglas A Wion (Lock Haven University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1990 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 18-40 |
| Publication date | 1990-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Review of Social Economy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-6764 • E-ISSN: 1470-1162 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00346769000000002 |
| OpenAlex | W2049548430 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 13 |
since World War II which has been more persistent and dramatic than the movement of married women into the paid work force. The causes and consequences of the trend are far-ranging and have attracted considerable attention from economists and others. A relatively neglected aspect, at least until recently, has been the effect of these additional working wives on the distribution of family earnings. This effect cannot be predicted on the basis of economic theory. The outcome depends, rather, upon the interplay of multiple forces, the magnitude and direction of which must be determined empirically. For example, wives whose husbands are low earners have historically participated in the labor force at higher rates than wives of high earners, but whether family earnings at a given time are thereby rendered more equal depends, among other things, on the extent to which the employed wives of high earners tend to earn more than the employed wives of low earners. Furthermore, these relationships may change as additional wives enter the work force. In recent years labor force participation has increased fastest among wives of high earners. Is Thurow correct, that wives are now contributing to inequality rather than equality (1980, p. 157)? As Alice Rivlin (1975) has suggested, answering such questions could shed important light on the meaning to be attached to changes in postwar income inequality. This paper investigates how growth in the proportion of working wives fits into a broader context of secularly changing inequality of
Context (archaeology) · Demographic economics · Distribution (mathematics) · Earnings · Economic inequality · Economics · Geography · Inequality · Labour economics · Meaning (existential) · Sociology · Work (physics) · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Psychology · Social Policy and Reform Studies
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |