A Reaction to Implications for Marital Instability

In Women’s Personality Characteristics and Occupational Choice: Implications for Marital Instability, Daisy I. Dimpka attempts to find a direct correlation between a woman’s personality, her career choice, and martial instability. Not only did the topic seem interesting due to the fact that relationships are practically omnipresent as nearly all humans engage in a romantic relationship at some point in his or her life, but also due to the fact that it seemed intriguing that certain careers could increase the risk of trouble within a marriage. The hypothesis of the study is that a Nigerian woman should evaluate her personality and select a career that fits with said personality, because if not, unwanted occupational stress could cause trouble at home and eventually lead to an impactful divorce.

Dimpka claims that introverted women should choose careers that are more task-oriented, while extroverts should pursue careers that are more people-oriented. Opining that a stressful workplace can result in conflict at home, the author asserts that women should choose careers that require little work to be completed at home. This is due to the fact that Nigerian culture involves little shared responsibility at home, meaning the wife is expected to complete household tasks while the husband is expected to work and earn money for the family. If the wife becomes overwhelmed with the amount of work she must complete at home, it could cause trouble in the marriage, especially due to the fact that, as the author stated, women are more likely to experience stress than men.

Ultimately, the author concludes that women should evaluate themselves before choosing a career. Although the author conducts no actual research of her own, she relies on previous studies that have shown occupational stress can cause marital problems, as well as the fact that, as previously stated, studies in the past have shown women are more likely to experience stress than their male counterparts. Dimpka also makes the assumption that it is the woman’s sole responsibility to take care of the family, while it is the male’s responsibility to work. She eventually concludes that more research is necessary before determining if certain jobs are suitable for women.

There are many questions left unanswered in the study. Most importantly, the author claims that stress can cause marital problems, and that jobs can cause stress, but never makes a direct correlation between a woman obtaining a job and marital problems. Instead, the author relies upon faulty logic in an attempt to convince the reader that a woman having a job causes marital problems while ignoring many potential factors. For example, she assumes all stress brought into the family is brought on by the wife, while ignoring that men can also be affected by occupational stress, which could in turn cause problems at home. By her logic, should men also avoid working as well so there is no occupational stress affecting the marriage? She also ignores the fact that many families require two sources of income in order to survive, and many husbands are incapable of supporting a family on a single income.

Additionally, the author claims the key to solving Nigeria’s problem with kidnapping, robbery, and government sabotage would most easily be solved by women staying at home and educating the youth to respect its elders. Once again, she assumes that it is the woman’s sole responsibility to tend to matters at home and backs up her assertion with no facts, when conventional logic actually goes against her claim, as there is a greater likelihood of educating children if both parents are involved in the process, not just the mother. Quarrels such as these leave children feeling stuck in the middle. Although the author raises several points that are worth considering, such as the fact that one should evaluate his or her personality when choosing a career in order to avoid undue stress, the study is ultimately lacking the data to back up the hypothesis. In order to prove her point more effectively, a study should have been conducted wherein the author examined problems in marriages where the wife was employed compared to those where only the husband held a paying job. She instead relied upon various studies and tried to piece it together to prove her point, which is ultimately why she could not prove the hypothesis to be correct and concluded that more research would be necessary.

Reference

Dimpka, Daisy I. (2011). Women’s personality characteristics and occupational choice: Implications for marital instability. International Journal of Psychological Studies, 3, 193-199.