ABSTRACT
In this chapter I examine the impact on those dual career couples in skilled careers that require a high degree of international mobility, whether in the private sector through working for corporations or in the public sector (government and non-governmental organisations). A large number of professionals work abroad for international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), in the foreign service, such as embassies. In this chapter organisational careers and migration are examined with reference to careers within the military and for corporations; these moves are often gendered and have implications for the household. Contemporary corporate geographies have a strong international dimension. How mobile work is organised and managed, and how mobile workers are selected, has a great impact on mobile life (for a fuller discussion see Doyle and Nathan 2001). Multinational companies often require staff to be ‘mobile’, to be willing to work abroad, with international assignments forming an integral part of career development for potential senior managers. These assignments are relatively short term and are either followed by a return to the place of origin or transfer to another international location. These skilled transients are now a major feature of global migration systems, but they are mostly male (Adler 1994; 1997). Until the late 1980s, only five per cent of American expatriates, one per cent of Japanese expatriates and nine per cent of Finnish expatriates were women (Caligiuri and Tung 1999: 763). Two recent studies have revealed that the proportion of women expatriates is increasing. Florkowski and Fogel (1999) in a worldwide study undertaken in 1995 recorded that 11 per cent of respondents were women, while a more recent study of US expatriates recorded that 13.9 per cent were women (Caligiuri and Tung 1999: 764). Even though the proportion of women expatriates is increasing, it is still smaller than the proportion of women holding managerial and professional posts. Where career success is dependent on international assignments, women are therefore still at a disadvantage.
