Spouses' Employment Careers in Spain

Abstract

The chapter discusses the social & economic situation for working married women in post-1960s Spain, where the influences of both modernity & traditionalism seem to have resulted in female educational achievement & professional orientations while institutional changes still lag behind. Focusing on assortative marriage choices & work transitions based on statistical models, the author finds high levels of marital complementarity or specialization among homogamous partners, regardless of income levels; a correlation between educated women's assortative marriages & low job-interruption incidence; & constraints on married women's potential labor-force reentry by a rigid labor market. Occupational prestige, more than spousal characteristics, seems to determine married mothers' capacity to remain in or reenter the workforce. 3 Tables, 2 Figures, 1 Appendix, 45 References. K. Coddon