A new study, published in the journal Demography, shows that heterosexual couples tend to base relocation on the man's career, but the inequality might stem from the type of jobs chosen by the spouses and not necessarily their gender roles in the marriage.
Some jobs are typically worked by men (aerospace engineering, drilling for oil, politics) and have special geographic areas where they take place, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Careers in which females dominate (teaching, nursing, accounting) can be done from basically any city or town.
"The tendency for men to move more often than women is completely explained by the types of jobs they enter, not that they are men or women," Alan Benson, study author and assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, told the Washington Post. "Men who enter female-dominated jobs don't tend to move as much for work. If you look at women who enter male-dominated jobs, they tend to move a lot."
There is the thought that men and women gravitate toward certain careers because of learned gender roles. "It suggests that occupational segregation is largely self-fulfilling," Benson told the Washington Post. Putting one's spouse's career on hold during a move can put a strain on the marriage, and it's often the husband's career that is advancing.
Benson's research also showed that women who enter male-dominated careers have a higher rate of divorce than women who are not in a male-driven career. "That result (to be published in the journal Industrial Relations) - together with his other research - suggests that women who move for a spouse's career and those who move to advance their own careers get penalized no matter what," wrote Dina ElBoghdady.
