Engendering class in the metropolitan city: Occupational pairings and income disparities among two-earner couples

Little attention has been given to the implications of the dramatic growth of the dual-earner family form for urban social geography. This paper reviews the main themes of existing literature across various disciplines, drawing out their pertinence to urban-geographical questions. Notably, and through the mediation of gender dynamics, the two-earner phenomenon complicates the linkages between occupational class identification and "consumption classes" in the residential sphere. We then present findings of an empirical study of the occupational and income characteristics of dual-earner husband-wife couples in the census metropolitan area of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, using special census tabulations. We highlight the divergent implications of two-earner family growth for social inequalities at the micro-urban scale: (1) how it may have broadened accessibility to middle-class suburbs by increasing the affordability of home-ownership by families of modest occupational status, and (2) how it may have generated new spatial patterns of household income inequality at the neighborhood scale, especially in gentrifying inner-city districts. We conclude with some speculations about the implications of these developments for the roles and interactions of class and gender in influencing social activism around "quality-of-life" issues.