Hubby’s Overtime Prompts Wifey To Quit, Vice versa However, Is Untrue: Study

While the husband’s working overtime might prompt the wife to quit her own job and opt to stay at home, research clearly brings out that the same might not be true for men, incase their spouses choose to work late.

In a study that yet again points out the difference between the two genders, igniting the age old debate once more, that men and women might actually be from different planets, facts regarding how overworking and overtime at office effects the sexes differently have come to the fore.

The study performed by the lead researcher Youngjoo Cha, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Cornell University, brings out lot of interesting facts to the front.

"Women are more likely to sacrifice their careers, because men's careers are considered to be more important, and the culture of taking care of children says that mothers should bear the primary responsibility for housework and health care," Cha said.

Cha’s study is based on the 1995-2000 U.S census survey performed on married couples. The following were the findings of the study –

• As per Cha’s study, a man is less likely to stop working if his partner begins to work 60 hours or more per week, on the job that she has.

• However, she found that if a man worked for the same or more number of hours a week(60hrs or more), the chances that his wife would quit her job, to stay at home are as high as 44%.

• This was particularly true for women with children, for they were found to be 90%more likely to quit their jobs as compared to those who did not have children.

• It was found that 30% of the husbands, among professional couples worked more than 50 hours a week, whereas, the percentage of wives working for so many hours was only 12%.

• Not only this, the report shows an increase in the number of employees in America working more than 50 hours a week, from an earlier 9% in 1983, to a present 12%.

Despite taking into consideration the various factors like education levels and income and readjusting the statistics, Cha found that the differences remained. And according to Cha and the findings of her study "men's careers are comparatively more important than women's careers," she said.

"Even among very egalitarian couples, children are considered to be the woman's primary responsibility,” she added.

Christine Percheski, a sociologist at Harvard University, involved in a similar research said that her own research conveys that although the workload of men has an effect on women it is considerably lesser as compared to what it was earlier.

"This highlights how difficult it can be for couples in which both spouses have demanding careers," she said.

Somewhere bordering on the age old belief, of roles of the two genders being outlined by nature, where the man is the bread winner and the woman is the caretaker, the study is actually an eye opener. More so, because it has brought to the fore that somewhere this belief still holds true and whether or not the American society is reverting back to the age old traditions, the past still looms in the present. Maybe it’s all in the way nature made us.