1. ON THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY: REPORTED HUSBAND-WIFE DIFFERENCES.
- Author
-
Poloma, Margaret M. and Garland, T. Neal
- Subjects
SPOUSES' legal relationship ,DOMESTIC relations ,SOCIAL constructionism ,SOCIAL reality ,GENDER role - Abstract
The article discusses various issues related to the husband-wife differences. The reciprocal nature of the role of husband and wife in the construction of reality is an assumption made in nearly all theoretical discussions. Authors wish to raise the question of whether feminine construction of reality, the woman's construction of her sex role constellation can exist apart from masculine construction of reality. It is the authors' attempt to investigate some of the similarities and differences in such constructions within the marital dyad. In this article the authors illustrate some of the differences they found in subjective reports of husbands and their wives involved in dual-profession marriages, specifically in cases where the wife is actively engaged in the practice of law or medicine or teaching at the university level. It seems probable that the husband or wife's perception of reality would have much effect on the spouse's internalization process. But the process is not a perfect one, making data from only one spouse most incomplete. In the case of the husband's attitude toward his wife's work, we see at least this pattern in operation in the dissimilar responses: some wives are reluctant to admit that their husbands disapprove of their activities, although their husbands may in fact be against such employment.
- Published
- 1971