The article "WASP (Wives as Senior Partners)" written by Maxine Atkinson and Jacqueline Boles, discusses marriages and families who are organized around the wife's job rather than the husband's job. According to the article there are three social conditions associated with WASPs: wives have traditional male jobs, flexibility around male's job, and absence of children (Atkinson, Boles, 1989). It is interesting that the authors do not discuss the reason that a marriage might focus on the wife's job is due to the woman just having the better skills to make more money. The above reasons relate back to the male partner.
The companionate theory of marriage focuses on having a higher quality of marriage for wives as well as showing positive emotions from the husbands (Wilcox, Nock 2006). This theory is discussed in the article "What's Love Got To Do With It? Equality, Equity, Commitment and Women's Marital Quality" written by W. Bradford Wilcox and Steven L. Nock. We can relate this theory to the film "Adam's Rib."
The film "Adam's Rib" follows a married couple who are working on the same trial. The husband, Adam, has been chosen to be the prosecutor against a women who shot her husband for cheating on her. Adam's wife, Amanda, find the case interesting and becomes the woman's defense attorney. Although, during the time period it was rather uncommon for a woman to have such an elite job, Adam does not seem to mind that his wife is a lawyer. It bothers him that she is on this specific case, but otherwise he shows positive emotion toward her, as in the companionate theory of marriage.
Are WASPS becoming the norm?
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