Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-1983

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Educational Administration and Supervision

Major Professor

Francis M. Trusty

Committee Members

Chuck Achilles, Ken McCullough, Lynn Ourth

Abstract

In this study the researcher explored the perceptions that nine women in dual-profession marriages in a southern city have of their roles, conflicts, and coping strategies. The researcher used the two approaches of a focus group interview and the case study, both based in the constant comparative analysis procedure of grounded research theory, to gather information. As a moderator-interviewer, she guided the sessions with protocols developed around the four persistent areas of concern to the study. All discussion was tape recorded, transcribed, and analyzed according to a coding chart designed from categories indicated by a review of the literature.

Findings include the following; these nine women assume heavy responsibility for their professional practices, have a strong need to achieve, receive little praise or recognition from their col leagues for their competent work, and place the role of mother higher in priority than the roles of wife and professional. The women experience conflict in their marriages from the strain of stated and unstated role expectations from self and others, career imbalance, lack of equity, the cost of achievement, the power of money and the pressures of time. They use accommodation/sacrifice, avoidance/withdrawal, planning and scheduling, and working harder as specific coping methods to handle multiple role responsibilities.

The costs of juggling such multiple role responsibilities are often revealed in guilt, lack of achievement, and exhaustion. Although they feel lonely and claim they lack an external support system and friends, these nine professional women find the advantages of a dual-profession marriage include children, a comfortable income, a sense of shared communication, and the support of an encouraging husband.

Recommendations for future research include a parallel study of the perceptions of men in dual-profession marriages; a closer examination of the relationships among competency, achievement, "stroking," and guilt for women; a look at avenues for guiding women who feel that they have peaked in their professions; an investigation of the use of goal-setting by professional women; the development of courses, focusing on role concepts and expectations, which counselors could offer to prospective dual-profession couples; and a longitudinal study of successful dual-profession marriages.

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