Since few decades, family structure, gender roles and organization of job marketplace has substantially transformed in Pakistani society. The traditional gender role ideologies have undergone significant changes. As a consequence, male breadwinning and women caregiving model has been gradually transforming and expected to be further transformed into egalitarian gender relations in the future. Large number of women had started to work outside home and men have begun to share family responsibilities. As a result, alternative family pattern and marital forms are rapidly emerging. It is generally viewed that the most emerging family pattern and marital union especially in the urban areas of Pakistan is the dual earner couples and most importantly dual career couples. Researchers had very early coined the term dual career couples in western academic discourses however, the term has not been yet so popularised in the academic discourses in eastern culture including Pakistan.

The term ‘dual career couple’ was initially put forward by two academic couples Rapoport and Rapoport in 1969 who described a marital pattern in which both spouses are also professional careerists. It is a form of marital union in which both marital partners are highly educated, working full time in a challenging job with high aspirations for upward Career mobility (Rapoport & Rapoport, 1969; Cherpas, 1985; Haddock et al., 2001; Hansen, 1997). Researchers have outlined that the most prominent feature of the lives of dual career couples is the simultaneous engagement in occupational role and family obligations. Many research studies have found that performing work and family obligations may be challenging and demanding because family based stressors spill over and affect occupational role and work based emotions can cross over and negatively affect family domain (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985).

Role Conflict: Work to Family and Family to Work Conflict

Researchers have highlighted some significant aspects of dual career couples including role overload, role strain and role stressors. They further affirmed that role stressors are heightened in the case of dual career couples because of their simultaneously involvement in work and family responsibilities. The juggling effect of the simultaneous demands may be negatively affecting the level of quality, happiness and togetherness in the marriage. Likewise, the multiple demands of family and job have also been found to be problematic for the couples in terms of occupational performance, productivity and career satisfaction. The carryover effect across work and family has been described as role conflict which has two facets as work to family conflict and family to work conflict. When family based emotions carry over and begin to problematize work domain, it is known as family to work conflict and vice versa (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985).

Dual Career Couples and Marital Quality

Marital quality is a multidimensional global concept which describes the level of contentment, happiness, and satisfaction of the marital partners (Thomas, et al, 1984: 514). It also refers to the evaluative predisposition of an individual regarding his/her marriage, marital ties and marital partner. Marital quality also refers to the evaluation of the behaviour of marital partner and its consequential sense of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with marriage (Joshep & Inbanathan, 2016). Researchers have also clarified that marital quality of the married partners could be evaluated by probing some important aspects of the relationships usually selected by the researchers (Cohen et al., 2010). There are compelling evidences that changing family pattern and the rise of dual earning families have led the couples especially the women to take on more commitments, obligations, status, role and responsibilities and thereby need to be assessed from a sociological vantage point. Researchers have pointed out that such roles and responsibilities have created an environment of growing tensions, marital breakdown and intra familial conflicts and as a consequence, the quality and satisfaction within the marriage has significantly declined (Henry & Parthasarathy, 2010).

Dual Career Couples and Career Satisfaction

Another significant aspect of the lives of dual career couples is job and career. A job or career is defined as a long term developmental occupation or profession with an arrangement of connections, professional networks and also includes upward or downward career mobility and also includes temporary withdrawals (Smith, 1997). Moreover, job satisfaction is an evaluative predisposition of individuals towards a job that results from the variation across work stimuli and response (Statt, 2004). Career satisfaction is a general sense of workers about achievement and success in the area of work productivity, efficiency and personal well-being. Career satisfaction also implies a sense of happiness from the way the job is performed, being rewarded for efforts and enthusiasm with one’s work (Statt, 2004; Kaliski, 2007).

As mentioned earlier that the current job market is characterized by a large number of dual career families. The changing patterns of work and family and the contending demands of both domains have a considerable impact on the career and job satisfaction of dual career couples (Greenberg & Baron, 2003). Job satisfaction is often negatively related to work-family conflict and individuals with dual career pattern view that their work makes it very challenging for them to satisfy their family and work obligations (Kossek & Ozeki, 1998).

Studies have been conducted regarding the impact of external factors on the quality of life of dual career couples and found some variations across the results. For instance, they found that age is a potential determinant which significantly and negatively is correlated with role conflict and marital quality in dual career couples (Dartey-Baah, 2015). Some researchers went on to explore that age along with other factors such as number of children and marital duration are positively related to marital adjustment (Orathinkal & Vansteenwagen, 2007). In a study conducted among 47 Iranian women and men, it was reported that age, number of children, duration of marital bond, and education are significantly related to marital satisfaction (Madanian & Mansor, 2013). By contrast, some other social and personal attributes like caste, class, nature of profession, age, and children has little or no association with over all marital quality of the couples (Allendorf & Ghimire, 2012). A study conducted on female teachers in Pakistan, it has been reported that age, marital status, family structure and school organization has enormous impact on stress, job performance level and self-efficacy (Hanif, 2004). Furthermore, age and marital quality are positively related because as the couples grow older, they become more resilient to cope with marital conflicts and difficulties easily (Umberson et al., 2005).

Gender is one of the salient factors which are considered by researchers in dual career studies. Findings suggest that women in dual career couples feel more rushed than men and the time allocation problem for family and work activities was also mostly being associated with women (Joshep & Inbanathan, 2016; Craig & Brown, 2016). This is because that gender roles are organized in such a manner that female still perform more household tasks, child care or elderly care more than men (Rusconi & Solga, 2008; Craig & Brown, 2016; Offer & Schneider, 2011; Valli, 2012). Furthermore, women are more affected by the stress caused by others and they are comparatively more engaged in providing social and emotional support in the family network. Similarly, studies have found that women usually report being more dissatisfied in their marriages than men (Joseph & Inbanathan, 2016). In their empirical study, Han & Moen (2001) had reported a negative correlation between marital adjustment and career satisfaction for women only (Han & Moen, 2001). However, a study conducted in a private university in India concluded no significant difference between male and female among dual career couple in terms of their quality of work life (Jyothi & Neelakanton, 2014). Furthermore, a report regarding the changing workforce has revealed that men’s level of experiencing work/family conflict are on the rise in relation to the role conflict experienced by women (Aumann, Galinsky, & Matos, 2011). However, another study affirms that gender along with other factors like age and education have less or no impact on job satisfaction. Researchers have found that dual career couples are further challenged if the role of parenting is added to their lives (Werner & DeSimone, 2009; Mauno, Kinnunens, & Rantanen, 2011; Dew & Wilcox, 2011; Lyubomirsky & Boehm, 2010). Generally, a child is believed to be stabilizing the marital ties but marital satisfaction begins to decline as child rearing is a major challenge for the couples (Wendorf et al., 2011; Luhmann et al., 2012; Azeez, 2013).

Studies have also investigated relationships between age, number of children and marriage related issues in dual-career couples and concluded that couples having older children were having higher marital quality in relation with those who were having a younger children (Thomas, Albrecht, & White, 1984; Wendorf et al., 2011; Michel et al., 2011). Moreover, families with children aged between 2 to 5 have experienced less pressure in relations to the couples having children aging 2 years or younger (Galvin, Byland, & Brommel, 2011). Likewise, number of children is also positively associated with role conflict while the age of child/children has negative influence on the working couples. The most effected life cycle in this regard are the couples having younger children (Beauregard, 2006; Kaur & Kumar, 2014).

The collected data was analysed through descriptive statistics to calculate results of the selected variables. Initially, frequency and percentage distribution of the selected demographics of the study participants were obtained and presented in table-1. Furthermore, T-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were performed to ascertain the level of differences experienced by the study participants across the selected variables. Table-01 shows that majority being 58.8% of the respondents were male while 41.2% were female. Majority being 41.5% of the respondents were having 23-30 age group followed by 36.9% from 31-38. Furthermore, majority being, 93% of the participants, were having children while less number i.e. 7% were having no children. Family type of majority being 66.8% was nuclear and the remaining 33.2% were having joint family system. 70.6% respondents were being married outside their family while 29.4 were being married within their family.

Table 1. Selected Demographics of the Study Participants (N=388)

Inferential statistics in Table-2 reveals that female study participants (M=2.26; S.D=0.87) reported more FWC in comparison to male study participants (M=2.04; S.D=0.92) while male reported more WFC (M=2.20; S.D=0.85) and female (M=2.07; S.D=0.086) reported comparatively lesser WFC. Besides, female experienced higher marital quality (M=63.15; S.D=11.51) while male experienced slightly lower level of marital quality (M=63.03; S.D=11.54). Career satisfaction was found higher among male (M=35.61; S.D=7.64) while lower level of career satisfaction was found among female (M=33.81; S.D=7.99).

Table 2. T-test for Gender and Selected Variables (N=388)

Data in Table-3 shows that dual career couples with children significantly experienced more FWC (M=2.21) (S.D=0.088) while couples with no children experienced lower FWC (M=1.03) (S.D=0.19). Similarly, higher WFC (M=2.19) (S.D=0.84) was reported by couples at significant level having children in comparison with the couples having no children (M=1.53) (S.D=0.81). Furthermore, differences at non-significant level were found in the area of marital quality between the couples with or no children. The data reveals that couples with children reported lower marital quality (M=63.11; S.D=11.42) while higher marital quality (M=65.53; S.D=12.65) was reported by the couples having no children. A higher level of career satisfaction (M=37.34; S.D=8.68) was found among the couples having no children while dual career couples with children (M=34.71) (S.D=7.76) experienced lower career satisfaction.

Table 3. T-test for Children and Selected Variables (N=388)

Data in the table-4 reveals that dual career couples with marriage within the family experience less FWC (M=2.11) (S.D=0.91) than the couples being married outside their family circle (M=2.19) (S.D=0.90). Similarly, WFC was higher (M=2.15) (S.D=0.85) among the couples who were being married outside the family in comparison to the couple being married in their own family circles (M=2.13) (S.D=0.86). Furthermore, a higher level of marital quality (M=63.42; S.D=11.65) was reported by the respondents with marriage in the family in comparison with those who married outside their family (M=62.77; S.D=11.25). Likewise, a higher level of career satisfaction was found among the couples who were being married within the family (M=34.92; S.D=7.95) in relations to the couples with outside the family marriage (M=34.80; S.D=07.56). The data suggest that majority of the study participants were being married outside their family but the participants married within their families were experiencing less role conflict i.e. family to work and work to family conflict.

Table-04 T-test for Marital Type and Selected Variables (N=388)

The data in table-5 indicate that dual career couples with joint family network experienced less FWC (M=2.04) (S.D=0.94) while the couples living in nuclear family experienced higher level of FWC (M=2.18) (S.D=0.89). Similarly, dual career couples with nuclear family system reported higher WFC (M=2.22) (S.D=0.84). The data further reveal that over all marital quality was found higher in dual career couples with joint family network (M=63.96) (S.D=11.05) in comparison with nuclear family system (M=62.87) (S.D=11.05). Likewise, couples from joint family background reported higher level of career satisfaction (M=35.62) (S.D=0.58) in comparison with nuclear family system (M=2.03) (S.D=0.56). The numerical values obtained from the given analysis suggest that majority of the study participants were having nuclear family and thus experiencing higher level of role conflict i.e. work to family and family to work conflict in comparison to the study participants from joint families. Furthermore, the data suggest that the study participants having joint family network were experiencing higher level of marital quality and career satisfaction in relation to the study participants having nuclear family background.

Table-05 T-test for Family Type and Selected Variables (N=388) 1

Data regarding major variables of our study based on various age groups of the respondents is given in the table-6. FWC has a significant relations with the age group of the respondents (F= 15.370; P<0.001). The data further suggest that high FWC was identified in the younger age group 23-30 years (M=2.50; S.D=0.79) while the lowest of FWC was reported by dual career couples with most senior age group 47-54 (M=1.98; S.D=0.84). WFC has also significant relations (F= 2.516; P<0.05) with age group of the respondents, however, the data suggest that differences exists across various age groups. Dual career couples in the junior age group 23-30 years experienced greater WFC (M=2.31; S.D=0.80) while the most senior age group 47-54 years has reported the lesser WFC (M=1.98; S.D=0.84). Likewise, difference in the career satisfaction was obtained with age group at a significant level (F= 3.970; P<0.005). The data further indicates that dual career couples with senior age group 47-54 years experienced higher career satisfaction (M=36.31; S.D=7.30) while the most junior age group e.g. 23-30 years experienced lower level of career satisfaction (M=33.33; S.D=7.76) in comparison with all age groups.

Table 6. ANOVA for Selected Variables and Age Groups (N=388) 2

Studies have consistently examined the impact of some external and internal factors on dual career couples in various contexts and found some mixed results. They argued that the differences found in the results is attributed to the role played by some spurious and intervening factors which further needs to be explored to have a more clearer and objective view regarding this complex matter. Among these factors, some personal attributes and characters of the couples including age, level of education, children, and family structure are the important factors which are under consideration for further studies. This study provide answers to the questions posed by the scholar related to dual career studies by examining a thorough analysis of the factors considered as crucial in dual career studies.

Gender: Role Conflict, Marital and Career Satisfaction

Findings of this study show that dual career couples with various demographic features were experiencing varying degree of role conflict, marital quality and career satisfaction. We found that female were experiencing higher level of family to work conflict than male and male were experiencing higher level of work to family conflict than female. Likewise, the level of marital quality was comparatively higher in female while career satisfaction was reported as higher among male than female. Likewise, similar studies conducted by Joshep and Inbanathan (2016) and Craig and Brown (2016) have asserted that male and female have different experiences regarding their work and life issues. Researchers have further affirmed that men and women in dual career families experience different level of stressors, marital happiness and career satisfaction because of the role gendering and gender relations. They argued that gender roles are organized in such a manner that female still perform more household tasks, child care or elderly care more than men (Rusconi & Solga, 2008; Craig & Brown, 2016; Offer & Schneider, 2011; Valli, 2012). As a consequence, they are likely to experience more problems in the family and work domain. Likewise, Joseph and Inbanathan (2016) have stated that women are more affected by the stress caused by others and they are comparatively more engaged in providing social and emotional support in the family network.

Parenthood: Role Conflict, Marital and Career Satisfaction

Furthermore, the presence of child/children has shown to have a significant impact on the lives of dual career couples though some evidence suggest positive and other have reported that the arrival of baby further complicate the role overload issue for the couples. Our study shows that dual career couples with children were experiencing a great deal of role stressor in relation to the couples having no children. In a study conducted by reserchers, Madanian and Mansor (2013), Allendorf and Ghimire (2012) and Orathinkal and Vansteenwagen (2007) have highlighted demographic features like age, children and marital duration as important factor in work life balance in dual career couples. Likewise, couples with children were having low level of marital quality and career satisfaction in comparison with the couples having no children. It is because of the fact that child care is a full time task for the parents especially the newly born needs more care and attention. The challenging aspect of parenting role has also been reported by researchers lives (Werner & DeSimone, 2009; Mauno, Kinnunens, & Rantanen, 2011; Dew & Wilcox, 2011; Lyubomirsky & Boehm, 2010). Dual career couples with parenting role are more challenged because of the lack of organizational support in the form of child care assistance in Pakistan. It is because of the lack of child care facilities, the couples have to rely on their own strength and resources to care their child/ children along with their career and family role.

Family Structure and Marital Type: Role Conflict, Marital and Career Satisfaction

Family composition and affinity has also been reported to have a significant impact on the lives of dual career couples. It is generally believed that the couples with endogamous marriage and joint family network will likely have less role overload problems and marital issues in comparison with the couples with exogamous marriages and nuclear family system. Our findings in this regard suggest that work to family and family to work conflict was found more in the couples who married within their family circle. Likewise, we found that the couples married within their family and having joint family system have reported higher level of marital quality and career satisfaction. It is deduced from the findings of this study that marriage compatibility and family structure is playing a pivotal role in overcoming the role stressors and marital quality issues in dual career couples. Family circle especially the joint family network with blood and relations provide a support mechanism and better opportunities for social adjustment. The couples living away from the joint family network with less early understanding of each other may be experiencing more challenges in the work life balance especially in the early years of their marital life.

Age: Role Conflict, Marital and Career Satisfaction

Furthermore, this study has found that age was found to have a significant predictor of role conflict, marital quality and career satisfaction. The couples with younger age group were having more load overloaded issues in the form of family to work and work to family conflict while the couples with old age groups were relatively more capable to easily absorb the role stressors originated either from family or work domain. Our findings in this regard are supporting the findings and assertions set by researchers. Dartey-Baah (2015) reported that age is a potential determinant which significantly and negatively correlated with role conflict and marital quality in dual career couples. The couples with old age group are more resilient to the problems of role overload and can easily overcome the problems related to work and family. Our findings in this regard support the findings reported by Umberson et al. (2005). It is deduced from the findings that as the couples grow older they become more stable to overcome role overload issues and may easily cope with the issue of marital discord because of their high emotional intelligence and competence.

Dual career couples simultaneously involved in the pursuit of occupational career and performing domestic responsibilities as a consequence they often find it difficult to successfully navigate through the stressful encounters. Researchers have found multitude of factors affecting the level of role strain, marital satisfaction and career satisfaction however the debate still exists that what factor more contribute to these experiences of the career couples. This study concludes that the demographic attributes including age, gender, parenthood, family composition and marital type are the significant factors that potentially determine the level of role conflict, marital quality and career satisfaction. It is further concluded that female are more family oriented. As a consequence, their family related emotions are more likely to be carried over to the occupational spheres and vice versa. The study further concludes that age and parenthood is a significant determinant because couples with children were experiencing higher role overload issue in comparison with the couples having no children. Family composition and marital type have also shown a significant impact on the family and occupational career of dual career couples.