WIFE’S PERCEPTION OF HUSBAND’S SUPPORT IN PURSUING HER CAREER IN RELATION TO WIFE’S MARITAL SATISFACTION AMONG WORKING WIVES IN METRO MANILA

Berta Esti Ari Prasetya

Faculty of Psychology, Satya Wacana Christian University

Abstract

This study investigated whether a wife’s perception of her husband’s support in pursuing her career is correlated with wife’s marital satisfaction among working wives in Metro Manila. A survey method using questionnaires (Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale and Husband’s Support Questionnaire) and open-ended questions were used in collecting the data. There were 129 Filipino working wives participated. The result of a correlational analysis showed that there was a positive and significant correlation between wife’s perception of her husband’s support in pursuing her career and wife’s marital satisfaction (r = .52, p < .01). The answers to open-ended questions were content analyzed and resulted that the supports given by the husband elicited the wives’ appreciation to their husband, and made the wives see their husbands as having numerous positive characteristics. 

Key words: Husband’s support in pursuing wife’s career, wife’s marital satisfaction.

Introduction

A marital relationship has long been considered the most intimate, special, and enduring bond most adults experience in this lifetime. The sacred union is so dear and personal that the two persons may be considered as one, not only by the society and culture, but also by the law (Medina, 2001). This synergistic relationship is particularly special because couples share the most private matters in their lives, risking heavy emotional investments that each party would otherwise not do had it been just any other type of relationship. It is a most enduring relationship, because these two people take a vow that they will be together, in sadness or happiness, for richer or poorer, in good health or in sickness, until death separates them apart.

Therefore, it is no wonder that the quality of marriage will significantly impact the well-being of the people who are bonded in the marriage. Marriage, therefore, has broad implications for the individual’s mental and physical health (Carstensen et al., 1996). Studies have also suggested that low marital quality decreases psychological well-being, increases psychological distress (Ross, Mirowsky, & Goldsteen, 1990), and is associated with greater increases in depressive mood over time for females than for males (Dehle & Weiss, 1998). Wickrama, Lorenz, Conger, and Elder (1997) found that the initial level of and the change in the marital quality of husbands and wives correlate with the initial level of and the change in physical health, after controlling for the influence of work stress, education, and income.

Although it is very clear that marital quality has a great impact in human life, research suggests that marriage affects men differently from women (Hess & Soldo, 1985; Levenson, Carstensen, & Gottman, 1993; Ross et al., 1990). Rhyne (1981) found that men and women assess their marriage in different ways. Women tend to focus more on the companionship aspect of the marriage. According to this finding, wives consider their marriage satisfactory if companionship or friendship with their husbands exists and if their husbands share their interests. In relation to this, the husband’s support for the wife’s chosen interest becomes an important factor in determining the marital satisfaction of the wife. In other words, if the wife finds her husband as a good companion and friend who supports her in the pursuit of her chosen interest, she would attain marital satisfaction.

A few years ago, women were interested in issues related to household chores, family life, and rearing children (Aguilar, 1991; Dionisio, 1993). For instance, they paid more attention to learning how to cook, how to sew, how to be a good mother, how to decorate the house, and the like. Therefore, the support that they needed from the husbands is closely linked to how the husband assisted and encouraged their wives in relation to household chores and child rearing.

Nowadays more and more women are highly knowledgeable and well informed on scholarly and civic issues. In the Philippines, for instance, Medina (2001) noted that married women today have relatively more options as to what role to play. The wives in the Philippines may pursue a career and attain a high status for themselves and the family by their success. Their interests seem to be broader than the earlier years. They may be fully committed to be active in political, civic, and community service. The Filipino women today are not only doing household chores and children rearing, but are also becoming active income contributors. As stated in the statistic, the proportion of Filipino women who earn incomes from formal employment has substantially grown from 0.33% in the 1960s to 47.5% in 1990, whereas thousands more are known to engage in informal economic activities (National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, 1995). It is plausible that the interests of the wives now have gradually shifted from doing the household chores and rearing children, to actualizing themselves more in a various career paths. In relation to this, the support that the husband has to give to his wife has also shifted from the support in doing household chores and rearing children to the support to pursue her career. In this way, the husband shows his willingness to be a good companion and friend for his wife in pursuing her career. This seems to be an important factor in enhancing the wife’s marital satisfaction.

To sum up, marital quality or marital satisfaction appears to be more crucial among the wives than among husbands. Therefore, this study is interested in examining marital satisfaction among the wives. Based on all of the review cited earlier, this study is interested to examine the importance of the wife’s perception of husband’s support in pursuing her career in relation to their marital satisfaction.

Review of Literature

Marital Satisfaction

Coleman (1984) noted that there are three main ways of attempting to define marital satisfaction:

1. Subjective evaluation: Marital satisfaction is determined by the point of view of the person involved that depends on his/her cultural background, mass media, observations of parental and other adult models and personal experiences with members of the opposite sex. Therefore, everybody may develop his/her own standard of marital satisfaction, depending on cultural norms that differs from his/her partner.

2. Social exchange: Marital satisfaction involves comparing an individual’s marital expectations with the actual outcome. The person is likely to consider himself/herself happily married or satisfied with his/her marital relationship if the difference between his/her expectation of marriage and the actual outcome is small. It goes without saying that if the difference is large, he or she is likely to be disappointed and unhappy or unsatisfied with his/her marital relationship.

3. Specific indices: This involves the delineation of conditions that appear to be associated with marital happiness or marital satisfaction. Some good characteristics such as love, companionship, open communication, emotional maturity, and compatibility sex roles tend to be associated with marital satisfaction, whereas violence, alcoholism, lack of common goals, and faulty communication tend to be associated with marital dissatisfaction. The delineation of such specific factors makes possible a more objective assessment of marital happiness.

Among these three approaches mentioned, the specific indices definition seems to be the hardest way to measure marital satisfaction. It may include numerous conditions that appear to be associated with marital satisfaction that need to be considered. It is also possible that what is regarded as good characteristics in one culture may be different from another. The second approach, which is social exchange, can also be considered as a subjective evaluation as the first approach, because the expectation may also be derived from their earlier experiences and socialization that form their subjective standards about certain aspects in marital relationship. Therefore, the subjective evaluation approach appears to be the most suitable approach in understanding marital satisfaction.

This study will investigate marital satisfaction using the subjective indices approach. Therefore, marital satisfaction will be examined in this study in terms of perceived marital satisfaction rather than the actual marital satisfaction. As Berger and Kellner mentioned (as cited in Rhyne, 1981) “it is not what happens in that marriage, but how the partners understand or define what has happened that is more crucial”(p. 942). Taken altogether, marital satisfaction is defined as a subjective evaluation of an individual’s feeling about his/her spouse, his/her marriage, and his/her marital relationship. Marital satisfaction will be examined in this study in terms of perceived rather than the actual marital satisfaction. 

Wife’s Perception of Husband’s Support in

Pursuing Her Career

Pursuing wife’s career is defined as how the wife is determined to actualize herself in a work place outside of the family. It may involve efforts to improve herself to be a better worker. For instance, a wife may need to leave the family for sometime in order to join training, seminars, or to accept an assignment to work on a particular project in order to be considered for a promotion in her chosen field of specialization. She may also have to work with a certain schedule that does not allow her to stay at home all the time and may consequently demand her husband’s adjustment to her schedule. 

It is also important to note that wives may work for many reasons. In the Philippine setting, financial considerations as reasons for working appear to be more important among married than among single women (Marquez, as cited in Gonzales & Hollnsteiner, 1976). In the low-income group, most career women work for financial reasons, whereas self-satisfaction and professional growth appear only as secondary motivations (Flores, as cited in Gonzales & Hollnsteiner, 1976). For women who have attained higher level of education, psychological and social reasons for working such as “the desire to apply one’s training, to make more friends, to acquire experience, sheer love of work, and the desire to keep oneself preoccupied” (Marquez, as cited in Gonzales & Hollnsteiner, 1976, p. 28), are prominent. In some cases, women may stay in their job for both reasons: financial need and psychosocial reasons. Therefore, in this study, pursuing her career will also be understood in terms of pursuing her employment, either for financial need, psychosocial need, or both.

As a result of the wife’s eagerness to commit herself to the demands of her chosen career, some husbands may show full support and encouragement for their wives, but some husbands may not. Support or nonsupport can be expressed by the husbands’ attitude, in terms of their cognitive responses, affective responses, and behavioral responses, toward the wife’s enthusiasm to pursue her career (Eagly & Chaiken, as cited in Manstead, 1996).

The husband’s actual cognitive responses include what he thinks and what he believes about the wife’s employment and her effort in pursuing her career. Actual affective responses include what he feels about his wife’s employment; whether he is happy with his wife’s career or ashamed or feel guilty, and so forth. The actual behavior responses toward his wife’s effort in pursuing her career include all observable behaviors exhibited by the husband in support of his wife’s career.

In relation to the actual behavior response, House (as cited in Cooke, Rossmann, McCubbin, & Patterson, 1988) has classified four types of supportive behaviors: (a) emotional support, that is, providing empathy, caring, love, trust, concern, and listening; (b) instrumental support, that is, providing aid in kind, money, labor, time, or any direct help; (c) informational support, that is, providing advice, suggestions, directives, and information for use in coping with personal and environmental problems; and (d) appraisal support, that is, providing affirmation, feedback, social comparison, and self evaluation.

Wife’s perception of husband’s support in pursuing her career and its correlation with marital satisfaction. Supports from husbands toward their wives in general have been found to predict marital satisfaction (Bradbury, Fincham, & Beach, 2000). L.Scanzoni and J. Scanzoni (1976) suggest that one important factor that can determine marital satisfaction is the feeling of empathy. It includes sharing another’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences that are shown by the spouse. It was mentioned that when people enter marriage, empathy is a sought-after reward. Spouses are expected to be able to confide in each other, talk things over, and find understanding and reinforcement for things that make them happy. The lack of support from the husband may be considered as lack of empathy for what the wife loves to do and may consequently affect the decrease in the wife’s marital satisfaction. Research performed on wives in higher social status felt satisfied that their rights were being granted by their husband by being able to accept her choice to work. Such was considered by the wife as an act of empathy from the husband (L. Scanzoni & J. Scanzoni, 1976).

A study conducted by Brunstein, Dangelmayer, and Schultheiss (1996) asserted that receiving and giving marital support in the pursuit of personal goals was found to be predictive of marital satisfaction. In relation to this, Hood (as cited in Roger, 1999) suggested that the spouses’ greater interest in each other as individual and as confidante can be one of the factors that contribute to greater marital satisfaction among the subject of her research. Furthermore, Brunstein et al. (1996) found that husbands' ratings of giving goal support were strongly related to wives' marital satisfaction, although wives’ ratings were not related to husbands' marital satisfaction. In relation to this, it is plausible that the husband’s support in pursuing the wife’s goal in their career will also lead to the wife’s marital satisfaction.

The other possible explanation on how the relation between husband’s support and wife’s marital satisfaction exists is that this relation is mediated by the changes in the power sharing between husband and wife, if the wife is working. Research in Western culture found that the wife’s employment seems to give the wife more power in marital relationship, and this leads to greater marital satisfaction (Blood & Wolfe, 1960). Therefore, the husband’s support for the wife’s employment will result in an increase in the wife’s marital satisfaction as well. Even so, in Asian settings such as in the Philippines, Miralao (1984) found that the extra earning of the wives may affect the increase in wives’ power differently according to the social status of the family. Among low income families, the extra earnings of the wives may be more appreciated as survival, therefore, it gives more power among them. But this appears not to be the case in more affluent families.

In relation to the increasing power in wives as the result of employment, keeping the balance of power sharing seems to be important also in maintaining successful marital relationship. Gray-Little (1982) found that balance in husband-wife power is related to marital quality. When the employment of the wife elicits unbalanced power in the relationship, marital conflicts may arise. Consequently, the couple may not achieve utmost marital quality.

Khan’s (2004) study on marital instability in Dhaka, Bangladesh with special reference to dual-earner couples showed the husband's approval of his wife's employment has a very beneficial impact on marital adjustment. The reason behind it is that in Dhaka, Bangladesh, most jobs require women to work with men, therefore, husbands tend to become suspicious toward their wives' career which, in turn, strains their relationship. It is for that reason that the husband’s support becomes an essential factor in marital relationship in his study among wives in Dhaka, Bangladesh. 

The other mediator for the relations between husband’s support and marital satisfaction is the wife’s income if the husband supports her career. Rogers and DeBoer (2001) found that increases in married women’s absolute and relative income significantly increase their marital happiness and well-being, whereas divorce is not significantly affected by increases in married women’s income. Nevertheless, increases in married women’s income may indirectly lower the risk of divorce by increasing women’s marital happiness. Furthermore Scanzoni (1978) argues that women’s economic contributions are the foundation of satisfying marital relationship and are necessary for establishing equality between partners and effective marital interaction. Therefore, the support of the husband for his wife to pursue their career will indirectly increase the wife’s marital satisfaction.

Another study by Vannoy and Philliber (1992) revealed substantial findings concerning wife’s employment and quality of marriage. The data used in that study were collected in 1982-1983, from a random sample of 489 married couples in Cincinnati, Ohio using interview methods. The study revealed that the husband’s attitudes to support the wife’s employment and the wife’s perception of those attitudes affect marital quality. The more sensitive and supportive a husband is toward his spouse, the higher the marital quality experienced by the wife. It was found that the husband’s expectation, gender-role identity, and support for his wife who is working are related to marital quality.

Despite the fact that the right of wives to pursue their career is respected by the law, in reality, it is not easy for married women to simply go out of the house to work, because most of them are still tied to their traditional responsibility as a housewife. In relation to this, the husband’s agreement seems to be highly significant among the wives in order to decide whether they will pursue her career or not.

A research done in the Philippines suggests that the lack of support from husbands is one of the primary reasons in marital annulment. Dayan et al. (2001) found in their study among marriage annulment petitioners in the Philippines that husband dominance and nonsupport of spouses, together with other temperament and personality factors such as unsatisfactory home life, difference values, relatives, drunkenness, immaturity, and emotional unavailability are reasons that contribute to marital annulment.

Hypothesis

There is a positive and significant correlation between wife’s perception of husband’s support in pursuing her career and wife’s marital satisfaction among working wives in Metro Manila.

Method

This was an explanatory and correlational type of study that tried to test the hypotheses proposed earlier. A survey method, specifically the questionnaire method, was used in data collection. A convenience sampling method was used in data collection. The Pearson-r correlation analysis was used to test the hypothesis using SPSS. Program 11.00.     

Measurements

This study dwelled on subjective evaluations on the part of the participants. It was based on self-report measurements. In order to collect the data, this study used:

1. Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale. Wife’s marital satisfaction was measured by Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMS). It contained three questions that were theoretically based on Spanier and Cole’s (as cited in Schumm, et al., 1986) conceptual distinction between satisfaction with spouse, marriage, and the marriage relationship. In the present study, the reliability testing resulted in a Cronbach’s alpha of .96. All the items showed high item-total reliability, ranging from .91 to .93. Evidence for the validity of the scale was provided by the study of Grover, Paff-Bergen, Russell, and Schumm, (as cited in Sabatelli, 1988) and also Schumm, et al. (1986).

2. Husband’s Support Questionnaire

HSQ was constructed by this researcher to measure wife’s perception of husband’s support to pursue her career as it was defined conceptually in this study. The participants were asked to rate their husbands’ support regarding their eagerness to pursue their career, in terms of (a) how their husbands think (cognitive reaction), (b) how their husbands feel (affective reaction), and (c) what their husbands do (behavior reaction), in relation to the wives’ eagerness to pursue their career. For their husbands’ behavior reaction, the participants were asked to rate if their husbands gave them support in terms of:

a.       Emotional support. For example: the husband gives encouragement, listens attentively, and maintains good relationships with friends.

b.       Instrumental support. For example: the husband gives help to take care of the children and renders help to his wife’s work.

c.       Information support. For example: the husband shares ideas when the wife is discussing topics related to her work and contributes to his wife’s work.

d.      Appreciation support. For example: the husband gives appreciation and praises in relation to wife’s work in her work place. 

HSQ used the Likert-scale. It consisted of 15 items. The total score ranged from 15 for the lowest possible to 75 for the highest possible. In this study, a reliability of this scale was tested again. The result showed that all of the items showed high reliability, with a Cronbach’s alpha of .91. Therefore, all of the items in this scale were retained. 

/b

3. Open-ended Questions<>. Together with the other questionnaire, an open-ended question was posed to the participants regarding what they think about the variables that were studied. The answer to this open-ended question was content analyzed and was treated as additional information to deepen the analysis of the study.  

Participants

The subjects of this study were Filipino married women, who were 25-55 years old, who were working, living with the husband, and were residing in Metro Manila during the time of the data gathering. There were 129 respondents who participated in this study.

The personal data of the participants revealed the following profile on educational attainment:  high school (2.3%), college (72.7%), master’s degree (22.7%), and doctoral degree (2.3%). These participants were employees of private institutions (45.6%), teachers or professors (24%), nurses (22.4%), licensed professionals (3.2%), self-employed (3.2%), and government employees (1.6%).

Result and Discussion

Correlational analyses using Pearson-r correlation were performed for this study. The result indicated that wife's perception of husband's support is significantly correlated with marital satisfaction of the wife (r = .52, p < .01).

This result supports previous researches on husband's support toward his wife conducted in the Western community by Brunstein et al. (1996) and also Hood (as cited in Roger, 1999). They found that receiving and giving marital support in the pursuit of personal goals was found to be predictive of marital satisfaction. The spouses’ greater interest in each other as individual and as confidante can be one of the factors that contributes to greater marital satisfaction among the subjects of her research. The result also in accord with Dentler and Pineo's study (as cited in Lewis & Spanier, 1979) found that encouraging each other’s personal growth was found to be related with marital quality. 

This result also confirms a research done by Vannoy and Philliber (1992) that proves that the stronger the husband's sensitivity and supportiveness is, the higher the marital quality is experienced by the wife. He reasoned that emotional attachment is important in the contemporary marriage, and giving and receiving authentic support will realize it. Furthermore it was found in his study that wives who have higher occupation than the husband experience higher quality marriages believing their husbands favor their works.

This result also supports research conducted in Asian setting as what was done by Khan (2004) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He asserted that in the Asian culture, where traditional gender role is still strong, the husband's approval for the wife's employment is considered important. The husband's disagreement of the wife's employment will lead to more conflicts and disharmony experienced by the spouse that is resented by the wife. Therefore, the lack of husband's support leads to less marital satisfaction in wives.

Another study done in the Asian setting was conducted in the Philippines by Aglosolos (2003). He found that moral and emotional support given by the husband is considered as important need that its fulfillment is related with marital satisfaction. He suggested that moral and emotional support might be in the form of acknowledgment for their hard work. It is the feeling of being appreciated that may increase their marital satisfaction. Furthermore, he reasoned that this kind of support is important for wives because women are known to be emotional. Affirmations from the husbands for the things that they have contributed for the family are important for wives.

This is also in line with what is found by Argyle and Furhman (1983) that providing emotional support for the spouse and getting emotional support from him are important sources for marital satisfaction. Other important sources to achieve marital satisfaction are: talking about things of mutual concern, discussing personal problems, sharing common beliefs and values, and working together in a joint task. In relation to this, the openness of the husband to talk about his wife's concerns and her personal problems in her workplace, the willingness of the husband to share the same beliefs and values about his wife's works and her personal growth, and his willingness to allow his wife to work together with him supporting the family in financial matters, these things will be part of the important sources in achieving marital satisfaction of wives.

The participants' responses to the open-ended question also revealed that most of the respondents acknowledged the importance of their husbands' support in pursuing their career. The responses of the participants show that husband's support to pursue her career help wives to achieve their marital satisfactions through several ways.

First, the husband's support seems to imply an acknowledgment of the good quality that the wife has as a person. This acknowledgment makes the wife feel that she is an individual with a good quality and makes the wife feel positive toward herself because of the husband's support. The participants enumerated that their husbands' support empowered them, made them secure, and worthy as individuals, encouraged them to have good outlook in life, made them feel strong and confident in facing the challenges of work and family problems, gave them the feeling of being loved and cared for, appreciated, listened to, and understood by the husband. They also felt important to the husband, for being valued as someone with a strong and independent personality. In one end they felt lucky to have such husbands. The aforementioned beliefs are reflected in the following participants’ responses:

§      It helps me become a better person, having the chance to find my own individuality thus being able to relate myself with him and our family.

§      He believes that my success is also his success, He loves me that much that he never wants me to feel unworthy, myself. His all-out support to my endeavors makes me a worthy individual and confidence and a full motivation to show the best that I can be.

§      Knowing my husband appreciates what I am doing makes me confident in decision making. Makes me have a good outlook in life and strong for challenges in work and family problems. This feeling of being loved, cared for; appreciated and well provided makes me feel satisfied with my married life.

§      His supporting me makes me more confident in myself and I can open up to him any topic or situation or issues.

§      His support makes me feel how important I am to him.

The aforementioned responses confirm the study of Argyle and Furhman (1983) which asserted that appreciation may give rise to their marital satisfaction. Murray et al. (2003) also found that for people who chronically feel less positively regarded, acute signs of a partner's possible disaffection likely pose a greater proportional loss, that leads to greater threat to self-esteem. Over the years this predicts decline in the partner's marital satisfaction.

Second, by giving a support to the wife's endeavors, the husband is seen by the wife in a more positive outlook. Participants enumerated several qualities that they saw in husbands who are supportive of their wives such as: someone who is secure, unselfish, truly loves the wife, values wife's interests, sees him as someone whom she can run to and give support, can be relied on, can listen, can accept her entirely as wife and person, and interested in whatever is important to the wife. The positive perception of partner's attributes is important for the individual's satisfaction with the relationship (Jones, as cited in Hendrick et al., 1988). Following are the participants’ responses to the open-ended question:

§      It makes me feel good to know that I can always count on my husband to help me with work related problems. Knowing that I can rely on him to listen to whatever I have to say makes me feel good about our relationship.

§      I am happy that my husband is pushing me to pursue my career. On that way, I feel that he is not insecure to himself which I am really proud of.

§      His support will mean a lot of encouragement, inspiration, initiative and that will satisfy my needs as a working housewife. I will certainly feel that he really loves and cares for me.

This kind of affection, expressions of care and appreciation are important qualities that enhance marital satisfaction in wives, as asserted by Lorenz et al. (2001):

For wives at least, expressing satisfaction with one's marriage is a response to husband's acts of affection, help and expressions of care and appreciation. Further, men varied in their expressions of support . . . and wives are sensitive to the vicissitudes of these expressions, as indicated by the congruence between the slopes of support and marital satisfaction. (p. 1080)

Those participants' responses also validate proposition suggested by Scarr, Phillips, and McCartney (as cited in Medina, 2001), which stated that wives feel positive also about their spouses and their lives, if they receive a great deal of positive spouse's support. Murray et al. (1996b) also found that idealizing a partner predicts greater marital satisfaction, fewer conflicts, and less serious doubts.

These wives also mentioned that those characteristics of the spouses made them feel that they owe their success to him, appreciate him more, and make her confident to open up to him to talk about any problems. As one of the participant responded:

I expect my husband to support me in pursuing my career. No one can ever give me full support except from my husband. We were joint together as one flesh and how I react to my career whether disappointed or full challenged has a great impact in my relations with him. A husband who knows how to motivate well at the back owes that success of the wife to him.

In contrast, a wife mentioned that the lack of support from the husband would cause feelings of insecurity within her to grow, and when she no longer feels good about herself, it would affect her relationship with her spouse and she would begin to resent him. "If he belittles my career it would cause feelings of insecurity within me to grow. When I no longer feel good about myself, it would affect my relationship with him, I would grow to resent him."

Third, not only that the support of the husbands make wives see themselves and their husbands in a more positive outlook, it also helps wives see their jobs in a more positive way. The participants mentioned that the husband's support helps the wives to appreciate the essence of their career, encourage them to continue and achieve more, makes them feel that what they have done in their career mean something and satisfy those they love. All of these conditions seem to give them fulfillment. The aforementioned ideas are expressed in the participants’ responses:

§      His support enables me to appreciate the essence of my career. My achievement would not mean anything if it does not ultimately satisfy the one of my husband and my family.

§      I much more eager to pursue my career because I know that my husband will support me and will always be there for me. My achievements are his achievements also. He is my inspiration.

§      Because I feel more satisfied if I know that my husband supports me all the way. I feel more cared and my work feels more easy [sic] if I know my husband agrees with my work.

These participants’ responses confirm Wise and Carter’s study (as cited in Arnott, 1972) that wives' attitude toward their employment is influenced mostly by their husbands' attitudes toward the wives' employment. Lewis and Spanier (1979) proposed that "the more the wife's satisfaction with her employment, the higher the marital quality. . . . Job satisfactions give wives a sense of meaning and worthiness which may generalize to greater satisfactions with their marriages" (p. 280).

Fourth, the husband’s support also helps the wife feel less burdened because the husband is willing to help her take care of the children and the house while she is working and that increases their marital satisfaction. These ideas are reflected in the participants’ responses:

§      Yes, I feel happy when he supports my work. Taking care of the children while I work is my husband’s share in our marriage.

§      When I have to come home late, he understands, and I appreciate his taking care of the kids and feeding them.

This response is in accord with a finding obtained from Yogev and Brett's study (1985) that the husband's willingness to do the household chores is perceived by wives as fair. Their study indicated that perceived fairness in household chores is positively related to marital satisfaction. 

Fifth, the participants also mentioned that the approval of the husband is important to her, as reflected in the participants’ responses:

§      I need his support and approval so I can move and grow with my personal life.

§      Yes, it does, because if my husband does not agree with my decision to go on further studies, I won’t be able to concentrate on it.

§      Yes, because if your husband support you in term of career, you have peace of mind that your can explore more. You can do what is needed to improve your work because you are supported by your husband.

§      Because his approval brings peace and harmony as we relate with each other.  

This result also validates the finding reported by Arnott (1972) that "women do seek, maintain, and restore congruence between self-concept, role behavior, and the role preference of their husbands" (p. 682). Ginzberg (as cited in Arnott, 1972) expressed that the attitude of their husbands was often decisive in determining whether and to what extent the educated women in his study (who are interested in employment and actually are capable of independence) pursued their career.

These participants' responses are also in line with what is found in Khan's study (2004) that husband's approval is still considered very important in Asian country. This is also true in Philippine community, as asserted by Torres (1995) that the husband’s voice is considered as a very important factor in a wife’s decision.  

Despite the majority of the participants who mentioned that husbands' support is important for them to achieve their marital satisfaction, there are some wives who reported that they tried to cope with their husbands’ lack of support to maintain their marital satisfaction. It is interesting to look at how they cope with her husband’s lack of support. Some of them mentioned that "love" which is showed by accepting him as what he is, is one of the important sources of coping with the husband's lack of support. Some others turn to God to avoid disappointments. Following are some of the participants’ responses:

§      It would really be good if he showed interest in my career and what I am trying to achieve. I have learned to take him for what he is, love him for who he is, and not how supportive he is to my work and my life, etc. [sic].

§      I only rely on my own satisfaction, because I know he can't help me with my career, I make my own moves without consulting him. The love is very important and respect.

§      Our relationship is built on love of which Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. No matter what, I am always satisfied with him as he is God’s gift.

Conclusion and Suggestions

 This study provides empirical evidence that wife's perception of husband's support in pursuing her career is indeed correlated with marital satisfaction of the wife. It means that husband's support in pursuing the wife's career is needed to help their wives to enhance their marital satisfaction. This study suggests that the husband's support can help the wife to have a positive outlook not only toward herself, but also toward her husband, and help her to appreciate her work more. Based on the result of this study, the previous husbands' fears that the wife's employment will make the wife look at the husband in a more negative way is not supported. On the contrary, the wives stated that they would appreciate their husbands more, see their husbands as having numerous positive characteristics such as: someone who is secure, unselfish, truly loves the wife, values the wife's interests, sees him as someone whom she can run to and give support, can be relied on, can listen, can accept her totality of her being wife and person, and interested in whatever is important to the wives. This means that the support that is provided by the husband in pursuing the wife's career brings a positive effect for the wife's marital satisfaction which, in return, can be enjoyed by the husband as well. 

In relation to counseling practice in handling marital problems, it is also important for the counselor to look at how the husband sees the wife’s employment and how he gives support. In this case, it is important for the counselor to make the husband aware that his support for the wife’s career is needed in helping the wife achieve her marital satisfaction. It is important to note than the husband’s support can simply be expressed by showing a positive attitude for wife’s employment, either through the husband’s thinking, feeling or behavior. Example could be giving the wife an appreciation for what she does to contribute to the family’s income, listening attentively to the wife’s problems regarding her work, helping the wife take care of the children, or doing the household chores while the wife is working. The husband’s acceptance for the fact that the wife can earn and even earn more than the husband seems to help the wife achieve her marital satisfaction. Intervention can be given in this area if the counselor finds that the husband does not give enough support for the wife’s career.

References

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