If husband works 60 hrs., wives often quit

ITHACA, N.Y., Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Working overtime has a disproportionate impact on women in dual-earner households, exacerbating gender inequality, U.S. researchers said.

Study author Youngjoo Cha -- a doctoral candidate in sociology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. -- analyzed data from the 1996 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, a longitudinal household survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau that covers calendar years 1995 through 2000.

The study sample was limited to dual-earner married couples in professional and non-professional employment.

Cha found that women whose husbands worked more than 60 hours per week were 44 percent more likely than other wives to quit their jobs. However, there was no impact on husbands' odds of quitting when wives worked long hours.

Professional women were 52 percent more likely to quit their jobs when their husbands worked more than 60 hours per week.

Professional mothers whose husbands worked more than 60 hours per week were 90 percent more likely to quit their jobs than childless women whose husbands did not work.

The findings were presented at the American Sociological Association's 103rd annual meeting in Boston.