Determinants of role-sharing behavior: A study of egalitarian couples

This article reports on an intensive study of couples engaged in a deliberate attempt to institute complete sex-role equality within their marriages (not to be confused with the dual-career pattern, where couples merely share an interest in employment). Because role-sharing couples are so uncommon, a strategic nonrandom sampling technique appropriate for generating insights about emerging lifestyles was employed to locate couples for study. Several factors related to the adoption of a shared role marital arrangement are described. These are grouped into two categories: (1) background and personality characteristics of role-sharing individuals and (2) contemporary factors in the couples' social environment which facilitate role-sharing. The article ends with a discussion of the possible reasons for the increased incidence of role-sharing.The author wishes to thank Sally Weiler and Rose Gartner for help with interviewing, and Ain Haas, Russell Middleton, John Barlow, and Bert Adams for comments on an earlier version of this paper. This research was partially supported by a training fellowship and a small research grant from the National Institute for Mental Health Social Organization Training Program, University of Wisconsin, 1975–1976.