ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a number of questions remain unanswered in relation to the senior female international career move. The male trailing spouse is more problematic than the female trailing spouse for international mangers who are in dual-career relationships. International assignments have a strong bearing on a company's success and are of crucial concern for the person who is relocated. Career theories have largely been built on male models of success and work. Those models are supported by psychoanalytic conceptions of the centrality of work to identity. The participants believed that the thirties age-group was particularly difficult for female international managers, as they believed at this stage many female managers want an international career, but they also want marriage and children. The limited research which has been conducted on international managers who are in dual-career marriages suggests that spouse-related problems are more serious when men have to adjust to the role of secondary breadwinner.
