Close relationships, gender, and career salience

According to traditional gender roles and stereotypes, men? are given the p rimary role of breadwinners (work orientation), whereas women are responsib le for the nurturance of children and the maintenance of the family dwellin g (family orientation). Therefore, if could be presumed that women and men with a steady romantic relationship, give a different importance to their c areer. However, several factors may affect the relation between close relat ionships and career salience, namely, (1) characteristics of the individual (education and employment status, gender ideology, gender role identity), (2) characteristics of the relationship (e.g., dependence on the partner pr esence or not of children), and (3) characteristics of the partner (e.g., g ender ideology, educational attainment). Moreover these factors may affect career salience differentially in men and women. Both members of 148 Spanis h couples, all white and middle-class, answered an individual questionnaire . The results show that women and men obtained similar scores in career sal ience. However, woolen with children, a low educational level, and traditio nal gender ideology and those who were strongly influenced by their partner s showed lower career salience than women with the opposite characteristics . Moreover whereas career salience among men was unrelated to the character istics of their partners, career salience among women was related to the ge nder ideology, labor situation, and educational attainment of their partner s.