Occupational Satisfaction of Farm Husbands and Wives

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Abstract
Data from a sample of 500 Wisconsin farm families provide only partial support for the hypothesis that husbands and wives derive their primary satisfaction with occupational success from aspirations and attainments in their respective role areas. Farm mechanization and level of living best predict the husband's satisfaction, while gross farm income is the single most important predictor of the wife's satisfaction. Also, among aspiration measures, it is the husband's home aspiration that is most predictive of his satisfaction, while his farm aspiration and not the wife's home aspiration best predicts the satisfaction of the wife. The results suggest that in evaluating occupational success the couples utilize different perceptual frameworks which reflect the relative salience of farm and family roles in their lives. The couple's goal orientations and interests do not simply reproduce culturally determined sex-role patterns.