The dual career process in the Brazilian perspective: Unraveling typologies

A phenomenon closely linked to changes in social, economic, and cultural context is growing and growing as the years go by and attracting the attention of researchers for the development of studies involving both the individual and the organizational field. Named as "dual career family", this phenomenon emphasizes a joint move from a husband and wife (a couple) in the family sphere and in the development of both careers. Thus, in order to know how these relationships are being established, this study set out to investigate what are the determining factors that compose the dual career phenomenon in the Brazilian context. The research involved 340 participants, all former students of a public university, married or living in a marital status. The results allowed to feature, through descriptive statistics, the profile of dual career couples in the Brazilian scene and check what are the types of dual career in the country. We obtained five types of dual career: coordinated familistic, conventional familistic, coordinated careerist, conventional careerist and acrobat.

Keywords:
couples; dual career; families; phenomenon; types

Types	Definition	Couple’s Priorities	Implications to family
Careerist	The couple invests primarily in their respective careers.	Career	Not mentioned
Conventional	Represents the traditional family, in which the roles are based on gender. In this type, the woman plays the role related to domestic activities (home, children, etc.) and the man plays the role of provider. However, the man’s role as provider is closely linked to the development of his career, characterizing it as a kind of dual career.	Traditional family model (woman – family; man – career)	Not mentioned
Coordinate	It suggests a careerist husband, but willing to cooperate in the domestic sphere and a woman centered in family, with career guidance.	Family/career (equity in functions)	Not mentioned
Familistic	Both partners are involved in the domestic sphere.	Family	Not mentioned
Accommodators	In this type the partner has a high participation in career and a low one at home, and the other has these priorities reversed. The degree of involvement of each partner complements the other.	Family/ career (equity in function)	Minimizes conflicts Greater satisfaction for the couple
Acrobats	The couple is very involved in all their roles. For this type, the relationship with the family functions is just as important to their careers.	Family andcareer	Satisfaction in both domains (home and work) Prepared for conflicts Maximizes the conflicts when trying to satisfy all demands.
Adversaries	Both partners are usually too involved in their careers, and do not manifest any involvement with home, family or any support function to his partner.	Career	Considerable stress increase
Allies	Couples are usually very involved with career or with home/family, but not with all functions. Both partners can have a strong orientation to family and less identification with the career, or reverse.	Career orfamily	Ease in setting priorities
Prioritizers	It features couples who reject the notion of gender and the determination of the roles. They can choose the issues of work and family duties. Husband and wife have the same role.	Career orfamily	Diversified interests The actions are taken according to that they consider to be a priority at that moment
Traditionalists	They represent a conventional home, with divisions of roles and gender, where the female is associated with the housework and the man is the provider. In this type, the emphasis on career is given only to man.	Traditional model of a couple (woman – family, man – career)	No conflicts The couple have well-defined roles
Integrators	These couples have marital and parental roles, besides working roles. They develop jointly a professional practice and can be colleagues in the same area, or owners of their own business, or a team that combines different functions or skills. Enterprise and its related not mention.	Achievement and similar	Not mentioned

Variables	Dual Career Types
Family	Familistic (Rapoport & Rapoport, 1971Rapoport, R., & Rapoport, R. N. (1971). Dual-career families. First edition published by Harmonds worth. London, England: Penguin Books.)
Family	Careerist (Rapoport & Rapoport, 1971Rapoport, R., & Rapoport, R. N. (1971). Dual-career families. First edition published by Harmonds worth. London, England: Penguin Books.) Adversaries (Hall & Hall, 1980Hall, D.T., & Hall, F. S. (1980). Stress and the two-career couple. In C. L. Cooper, & R. Payne (Eds.), Current concerns in occupational stress. New York.)
Family and Career	Acrobat (Hall & Hall, 1980Hall, D.T., & Hall, F. S. (1980). Stress and the two-career couple. In C. L. Cooper, & R. Payne (Eds.), Current concerns in occupational stress. New York.)
Family/Career (equity in the functions)	Coordinate (Rapoport & Rapoport, 1971Rapoport, R., & Rapoport, R. N. (1971). Dual-career families. First edition published by Harmonds worth. London, England: Penguin Books.) Accommodate (Hall & Hall, 1980Hall, D.T., & Hall, F. S. (1980). Stress and the two-career couple. In C. L. Cooper, & R. Payne (Eds.), Current concerns in occupational stress. New York.)
Family (woman) – Career (man)	Conventional (Rapoport & Rapoport, 1971Rapoport, R., & Rapoport, R. N. (1971). Dual-career families. First edition published by Harmonds worth. London, England: Penguin Books.) Traditionalists (Hunt & Hunt, 1982Hunt, J. G., & Hunt, L.L. (1982). Dual-career families: Vanguard of the future or residue of the past? In J. Aldous (Ed.), Two paychecks: Life in dual-earner families (pp. 41-60). Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.)

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E-mail: rausp@usp.br

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[1] Heliani Berlato, Mestre em Administração pela Fundação Getulio Vargas de São Paulo e Doutora em Administração pela Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade da Universidade de São Paulo, é Professora no Departamento de Economia, Administração e Sociologia da Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz da Universidade de São Paulo, Campus Luiz de Queiroz (CEP 13418-900 - Piracicaba/SP, Brasil). E-mail: hberlato@usp.br Endereço: Universidade de São Paulo Campus Luiz de Queiroz ESALQ - Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz São Dimas 13418-900 - Piracicaba - SP - Brasil