SUCCESSFUL WOMEN, ANGRY MEN: Backlash in the Two-Career Marriage

by Bebe Moore Campbell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 30, 1986

This thin study of the emotional stresses suffered by both spouses in dual-career marriages expands--via an overabundance of airy prose--the author's 1985 Savvy magazine cover article on the same subject. Campbell's personal experience provides the light ballast for her foray into the troubled skies of the two-career couple: like the marriages of most of the 100 couples interviewed for this book, her own marriage splintered as her career (writing) took shape. A blueprint scenario of marital disaster occupies most of Campbell's attention: husband and wife, heirs of the feminist 70's, agree that wife will work, and husband will share household duties and support wife's career; that career grows, taking time away from family and engendering resentment in husband; husband's ""backlash"" begins, evolving in four different stages: 1. husband engages in general criticism of wife; 2. husband attacks wife's career in particular, belittling or sabotaging it; 3. spouses engage in ""all-out warfare,"" often punctuated by violent abuse on husband's part; 4. husband, and occasionally wife, indulges in affairs. Finale: marriage breaks up. Campbell illustrates this scenario with myriad anecdotes prodded by her interview subjects; regrettably, she presents much of the interview material in narrative form, frequently recounting her own participation in and response to the interviews as they occurred. This injection of self only serves to undercut the force of her presentation and smacks of amateurish self-promotion. Campbell does, however, partly amend by concluding with thoughtful advice on ways couples may prevent stress before completely short-circuiting their relationship. An intriguing subject, but the author's approach lacks statistical and intellectual rigor and suffers from partisanship (despite protestations to the contrary, men are clearly viewed as the villains here).

Pub Date: Jan. 30, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1986

Categories: NONFICTION