Dunatchik Allison
The University of South Carolina, Department of Sociology, Sloan College, 911 Pickens Street, Columbia, S.C. 29208.
Res Soc Stratif Mobil. 2024 Dec;94. doi: 10.1016/j.rssm.2024.100995. Epub 2024 Nov 17.
Economic homogamy has important implications for gender inequality and for economic inequalities between households. However, the long-term association between spouses' earnings is not well understood. This study reconceptualizes economic homogamy as a life course process rather than a static state of being that can be adequately captured at a single point in time. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, I examine the association between spouses' earnings trajectories over the course of 30 years of marriage to identify three distinct gender egalitarian earnings patterns among couples. 50% of couples follow a pattern, in which spouses follow similar, stable earnings patterns over time, 6% of couples are in that spouses' earnings vary similarly and 5% follow an pattern. A large minority of couples follow patterns of long-term specialization, with 34% of couples following patterns and 5% following patterns. Multivariate analysis reveals that gender egalitarian earnings patterns are stratified by couples' socio-economic status at marriage: while advantaged couples follow patterns comprised of two stable earners, disadvantaged couples follow egalitarian earnings patterns characterized by joint earnings instability. By taking a long-term approach, this study provides insight into the varied ways gender equality in earnings manifests among married couples and reveals an important and understudied dimension of economic homogamy: the concentration of economic stability and instability within couples.
经济上的门当户对对于性别不平等以及家庭之间的经济不平等具有重要影响。然而，配偶收入之间的长期关联尚未得到充分理解。本研究将经济上的门当户对重新概念化为一个生命历程过程，而非一种可以在单一时间点充分捕捉到的静态状态。利用1979年全国青年纵向调查的数据，我考察了在30年婚姻过程中配偶收入轨迹之间的关联，以识别夫妻中三种不同的性别平等收入模式。50%的夫妻遵循一种模式，即随着时间推移配偶遵循相似、稳定的收入模式；6%的夫妻属于配偶收入有类似变化的模式；5%的夫妻遵循一种模式。一大部分少数夫妻遵循长期专业化模式，34%的夫妻遵循模式，5%的夫妻遵循模式。多变量分析表明，性别平等收入模式按夫妻结婚时的社会经济地位分层：优势夫妻遵循由两个稳定收入者组成的模式，而弱势夫妻遵循以联合收入不稳定为特征的平等收入模式。通过采取长期视角，本研究深入了解了已婚夫妻中收入性别平等呈现的多种方式，并揭示了经济门当户对一个重要且未被充分研究的维度：夫妻内部经济稳定和不稳定的集中情况。
