Dictionary definition of “trailing spouse”

trailing spouse

n. a husband or wife who follows a marriage partner who takes a new job in different city. Subjects: English, Employment, Jargon

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Citations: 1981 Mary Bralove Wall Street Journal (July 15) “Problems of Two-Career Families Start Forcing Businesses to Adapt” p. 29: Another personnel man remembers the promising executive he lost because her husband was a dentist who couldn’t find a good practice to join in the area. To cope with this problem, some 150 northern New Jersey employers participate in an employer job bank. The bank is designed to provide job leads for “the trailing spouse” of a newly hired or transferred executive. 1982 Wall Street Journal (Jan. 21) “Firms Transferring Employes Often Find Jobs For Spouses”: In the past, companies primarily found jobs for wives of transferred employes. But now that too is changing. As women reach higher positions in corporations, more and more are being asked to transfer, and the husband ends up as the “trailing spouse.” 1992 [Robert P. McIntyre] Usenet: soc.singles (Mar. 4) “Equality Thoughts”: The other partner would be taken care of by the corporation with job opportunities as provided by policy with respect to “trailing spouse/SO.” Can the other partner truly “give up their current career”? Are they expect to for the sake of the marriage, or for the sake of their SOs career? 2006 Janell Ross Shreveport Times (Lousiana) (Dec. 19) “Married couples increasingly relocate for wife’s career”: The trend also means more companies hiring new executives offer some job-finding services to the spouse. In a growing number of cases, the so-called “trailing spouse” in human resources parlance, is the man.

Posted 21 Dec 06 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

DO you think that finding 2 citations from the same paper in the 80’s (same author??) and 1 from current qualifies?

by Logan Starrider 21 Dec 06, 0147 GMT

Yes. There are hundreds more to choose from in other papers and books, but as they add nothing new to the understanding of the term, it’s not necessary to include them here. I would have used just one citation from the Wall Street Journal, but I already had the second-oldest one when I found the oldest one, so I kept them both.

by Grant Barrett 21 Dec 06, 0203 GMT

I added another citation to buck it up.

by Grant Barrett 21 Dec 06, 0244 GMT

“Trailing spouse” is a very common term in the U.S. Foreign Service community.
See http://www.aafsw.org/arti cles/working/porter.htm.

by Sean McKee 10 Jan 07, 0628 GMT