Women in Dual-Career Families and the Challenge of Retirement

Abstract

The author reviews structural sources of strain that younger dual-career families are likely to experience as first identified by the Rapoports, and extends the analysis to families whose members are about to retire or are retired. The analysis is limited to heterosexual married couples with or without children in a dualcareer family. Objectives of this essay are twofold: (1) to lay the groundwork for a theoretically informed empirical study of mature dual-career families and (2) to identify needed areas of research on aging spouses, especially women, in dual-career families.