Chapter 8

How Two-Career Couples Stay Happy

by Jackie Coleman and John Coleman

More and more of us live in two-career households. Almost half of the married couples in the United States are dual-career, along with roughly 70% in Canada and around two-thirds in the United Kingdom. And these couples often struggle to balance work and home life.

We’re part of that cohort, and we’ve had many discussions about what it means to manage a relationship and our careers. Being a former marriage counselor, Jackie has seen problems other couples face—determining who will drop everything to pick up a sick child at school, dividing the household chores, deciding whether to move for one partner’s job, and so on. We’ve experienced those challenges and others, ...

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