Dual Career Couples, Gender and Migration

A growing number of households in advanced capitalist countries like Germany and the UK are striving to achieve upward social mobility through the pursuit of a career (Savage 1988). In some of these households both partners are trying to build careers. These ‘dual career’ households are defined as those in which both partners (that is, two heterosexual adults living as a couple in a two person or larger household) are in managerial and administrative, professional and associated professional and technical occupations; the types of occupation which tend to place particular demands on the individual and emphasise commitment (Erikson and Goldthorpe 1992: 42). In this chapter we focus on the location and mobility decisions of heterosexual dual career households, highlighting in particular the ways in which social mobility (career advancement) and spatial mobility (geographic migration) intertwine for them