I use the German Socio-Economic Panel to explore three dimensions of couples' career success: career input (hours), career output (wages) and happiness. I focus on West German parents because, until recently, they faced low levels of state-level childcare support and adverse attitudes towards maternal employment. I investigate the extent to which couples specialize in paid work in the long term. Previous approaches – even those using couple-level longitudinal data – failed to explore this fully, instead examining men and women separately, or a single transition. I develop a “dual curve” approach and find that even among the 1956-65 female birth cohort (which faced low state-level support for dual employment) only a fifth of all couples adopt full specialization in later life. A sizable proportion – a third – moves into dual fulltime employment, while half of highly educated couples adopt such employment. Highly educated women are not only less likely to permanently specialize but also more likely to try working full-time, possibly because their partners' comparative advantages are lower. I explore whether the take-up of work hour flexibility relates to rises in both the respondent’s and their partner’s wages. Men and women benefit from working flexibly, even when controlling for selection into work hour flexibility with growth-curve and fixed effects analysis. Moreover, there is a positive cross-partner wage effect, which is particularly pronounced for mothers, suggesting that men – the main users of the policy – use this measure to support their wives' careers. Are dual career couples (equal human capital investment) happier than specializing couples? I create a human capital measure to account for differential human capital during periods of non-employment, which has been ignored in past analyses. I find that women in dual career couples are unhappier when the child is young but happier later in life. Conversely, women who give precedence to their partner’s career in terms of human capital investment grow unhappier.

<p>SUMMARY</p><p>Title: Inter(man)tional Assignments?</p><p>– A Study Concerning Women’s Possibilities to Work Abroad</p><p>Problem: How do women perceive their possibilities to obtain an international assignment?</p><p>Purpose: The main purpose with this study is to create an understanding for women’s possibilities to obtain an international assignment. To be able to achieve this and to obtain a more faceted picture two types of sectors have been examined; larger Swedish corporations within the Swedish business world and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. We will further elucidate how women within the two sectors may perhaps learn from each other’s experiences, this to create new knowledge regarding women on international assignments.</p><p>Theory: In this study concepts linked to the fields of culture, management and international business are included; more pecifically the areas of international assignments, gender based differences, female characteristics, the glass ceiling and networks. A second theory part has been added after the completion of the empirical data collection to create a better and broader foundation for our study. Dual-careers, male structures, male bonding and old boys’ networks are included in this part. The supplemented theories have been placed previous to our analysis.</p><p>Method: We have performed a qualitative study from a gender based perspective with a focus upon female expatriates. The study has an abductive approach and we relate to a hermeneutical epistemology. Telephone interviews have been performed with female respondents who currently possess and international assignment or previously been an expatriate.</p><p>Result: The result of our study shows that there is no clear-cut answer to how women perceive their possibilities to obtain a foreign assignment, since their experiences are complex and individual. However, the core of our answer to the research question distinguishes a few aspects which are common among the respondents. The major cause affecting women’s possibilities is the issue of dual-career couples. The spouse’s and family’s situation is the main reason for the lack of women in these assignments. Another aspect which appears to be of great importance is the lack of women in leading positions. More women are needed on each and every managerial level to allow more women to achieve higher positions. If this is accomplished there will be a larger pool of competent and skilled females to choose from when selecting expatriates. Even though we have studied two diverse sectors, the issues and problems for the women seem to be the same. Still, both sectors have something to learn from each other. First, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs should improve their recruitment process. Second, something the Swedish business world can learn from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is to support their expatriates in a better way before and during their assignment abroad.</p>

SUMMARY Title: Inter(man)tional Assignments? – A Study Concerning Women’s Possibilities to Work Abroad Problem: How do women perceive their possibilities to obtain an international assignment? Purpose: The main purpose with this study is to create an understanding for women’s possibilities to obtain an international assignment. To be able to achieve this and to obtain a more faceted picture two types of sectors have been examined; larger Swedish corporations within the Swedish business world and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. We will further elucidate how women within the two sectors may perhaps learn from each other’s experiences, this to create new knowledge regarding women on international assignments. Theory: In this study concepts linked to the fields of culture, management and international business are included; more pecifically the areas of international assignments, gender based differences, female characteristics, the glass ceiling and networks. A second theory part has been added after the completion of the empirical data collection to create a better and broader foundation for our study. Dual-careers, male structures, male bonding and old boys’ networks are included in this part. The supplemented theories have been placed previous to our analysis. Method: We have performed a qualitative study from a gender based perspective with a focus upon female expatriates. The study has an abductive approach and we relate to a hermeneutical epistemology. Telephone interviews have been performed with female respondents who currently possess and international assignment or previously been an expatriate. Result: The result of our study shows that there is no clear-cut answer to how women perceive their possibilities to obtain a foreign assignment, since their experiences are complex and individual. However, the core of our answer to the research question distinguishes a few aspects which are common among the respondents. The major cause affecting women’s possibilities is the issue of dual-career couples. The spouse’s and family’s situation is the main reason for the lack of women in these assignments. Another aspect which appears to be of great importance is the lack of women in leading positions. More women are needed on each and every managerial level to allow more women to achieve higher positions. If this is accomplished there will be a larger pool of competent and skilled females to choose from when selecting expatriates. Even though we have studied two diverse sectors, the issues and problems for the women seem to be the same. Still, both sectors have something to learn from each other. First, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs should improve their recruitment process. Second, something the Swedish business world can learn from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is to support their expatriates in a better way before and during their assignment abroad.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka upplevelser av utmaningar och copingstrategier hos före detta RIG-studenter i Sverige. Deltagarna i studien utgjordes av sju personer, fyra kvinnor och tre män, i åldrarna 22–31 (M=25.1, SD=3.1). För att undersöka syftet tillämpades en semistrukturerad intervjuguide, med utgångspunkt i den holistiska karriärsutvecklingsmodellen (Wylleman, Reints &amp; De Knop, 2013). Frågor om idrott, skola, privatliv och kombination av alla tre faktorer var centrala. Resultatet i studien visade att den största utmaningen under det första året var att anpassa sig till en ny miljö, under det andra året var den övergripande utmaningen att hantera högre idrottslig och akademisk nivå och tidshantering och under det tredje året handlade utmaningen om att hantera ytterligare idrottslig nivåökning och vad deltagarna skulle göra i framtiden, efter gymnasiet. De viktigaste faktorerna som uppmärksammades av deltagarna var svårigheten att lägga ner tillräckligt med tid till idrotten, skolan och privatlivet, hantera skada samt att få tid till personliga aktiviteter och återhämtning. Resultatet visade även att den viktigaste copingstrategin var socialt stöd från familj, vänner och tränare, i form av instrumentellt och emotionellt stöd. Även personliga resurser, som till exempel självdisciplin, självreglering, planering och stresstålighet ansågs vara viktiga copingstrategier. Baserat på resultatet i föreliggande studie rekommenderas att tränare, lärare och föräldrar får bättre förståelse om livet som RIG-studenter så att dubbla karriärer normaliseras i samhället. / The purpose of the study was to investigate the experiences of challenges and coping strategies among former student-athletes who had studied at different RIG’s in Sweden. Seven participants, four women and three men, in the ages between 22–31 (M=25.1, SD=3.1) took part in the study. To investigate the purpose, a semi-structured interview guide was applied, based on the holistic athletic career model (Wylleman et al., 2013). Questions about sport, studies, private life and a combination of all three factors were central. The result showed that the biggest challenge during the first year was adapting to a new environment, the hardest challenge overall during the second year consisted of dealing with a higher athletic and academic level as well as time management and the most important challenge during the third year was dealing with even higher athletic levels and dealing with the future, what would happen after RIG. The factors that were mentioned the most were the difficulty to dedicate enough time to the sport, the studies and the private life, dealing with injuries, as well as making time for personal activities and recovery. The study also showed that the most important coping strategy consisted of social support from family, friends and coaches, in terms of instrumental and emotional support. Even personal resources, for example self-discipline, self-regulation, planning and stress management were important coping strategies. Based on the result of the present study, it is recommended that coaches, teachers and parents get a better understanding of the life as a RIG-student, in order to normalize the concept of dual careers in society.

In todays society sports has become a major part in people’s life, with the emerging of professionalization it’s become a thriving business that generates big money. An outcome of this evolution of sports as meant that most athletes must put more time and energy in to their athletics to have a chance to reach their dreams of being a professional athlete. And if an athletes dream get cut short somehow, the process of moving out of sport has been shown to somtimes be a difficult process for athletes that don’t have anything to fall back on. That’s why it is important for athletes to have the option to be able to combine their athletics with academics. The purpose of this study was to examine how a duel career, support services and life skills help to balance out the negative outcomes of pursuing a professional career in sports while also working for a higher education. During this study eight men and two women that where playing ice hockey and studying at an NCAA division 1 university where interviewed about their perceptions being student-athletes in a high performance university that has high standards on academics and sports. The results showed that most of support services offered to the student athletes helped them in reducing stress and having a more balanced life between sports and studies. The results also showed that the student-athletes perceived that they prioritized hockey and studies highly and their free time to do other things suffered because of that. Another aspect in the result showed that community service, which was part of the student-athlete program, helped them with putting things in perspective and affected them in a positive way in being student-athletes.

Darbe nagrinėjama sportininkų dvejopo pobūdžio profesinė veikla, jos įgyvendinimas Europos Sąjungoje ir Lietuvos universitetuose. Analizuojamos priežastys, paskatinusios tokios veiklos atsiradimą, taip pat tokios veiklos nauda sportininkams. Pateikiama Lietuvos universitetų, remiančių sportininkus- studentus, analizė. / The present research focuses on the athletes' dual careers and its implementation in the European Union and Lithuanian universities. It also analyzes the main reasons which caused the rise of such phenomenon, as well as the profit of the dual careers for athletes. The analysis of Lithuanian universities which support student- athletes is presented in the research.