Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Housewives' Self-Esteem And Their Husbands' Success: The Myth Of Vicarious Involvement, Ilene Nagel Bernstein, Anne Statham Macke, George W. Bohrnstedt

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This study tests the common assertion that women, especially upper middle-class housewives, vicariously experience their husbands’ success. Our findings for 121 mostly upper middle-class housewives disprove this assertion. Husbands’ success does positively affect a housewife’s self-esteem, but only indirectly, through its effect on perceived marital success. Only husband’s income has a direct positive effect on self-esteem, while other successes of the husband actually lower her self-esteem. These findings, made more dramatic by a comparison with professional married women for whom none of the above effects appear, demonstrate the ambiguous impact traditional marriage has on women. Since marriage is traditionally a …