Goddess of Success

The swiftest path to success, according to business folklore, is to marry the boss's daughter. Not so, say two University of Chicago research sociologists. Marrying the boss's daughter can actually hold back a rising young executive.

After interviewing some 8,300 U.S. executives and many of their wives, Sociologists W. Lloyd Warner and James C. Abegglen reported in the current Harvard Business Review: "A laborer's son who marries the boss's daughter will land in a top management spot only two months sooner than if he married the girl next door. The farmer's son is much worse off: he can get to the top in 24.5 years by marrying a farmer's daughter, but it would take him 29.4 years if he married into money."

Violent Feelings. One big reason that the boss's son-in-law runs into trouble is that he "becomes the center of violent feelings--envious, disapproving, realistic and cynical." To overcome these feelings, he must "rehabilitate himself by doing his job better than the competitors on his own level." Actually, the bride's background counts for little: "The man who marries the boss's daughter is buying social, rather than economic, success. Business success depends not on whom a man marries, but on what his talents, energies, and single-mindedness of purpose are. In short, the wife can be useful, but it is the husband who makes or breaks his business career."

The wife most useful to husband-success secures the base of operations for her husband's career, relieves him of onerous household chores, handles most of the child rearing. "She must not demand too much of her husband's time or interest.

Because of his single-minded concentration on the job, even his sexual activity is relegated to a secondary place."

Ideally, the good business wife not only handles the home front, she also takes part in community activities, e.g., hospital and Community Chest work. "Her participation can be a direct steppingstone in getting to know the 'right people.' "

Left Behind. Many a comer among young executives deliberately tries to keep his bride at home, apart from any contact with business associates. He may regret it, find that "when he nears the top and turns to his wife for assistance in advancing socially and consolidating his position, she is unable to help."

"The wife who can adjust to the changing social and emotional demands of her husband's rise in business is not only a social asset but a personal one. Such a woman often strengthens her husband when he fears failure, acting as a 'sounding board' for him, helps him formulate his ambitions. She does not need to be an ex pert in his business; she does not even need to be very well-informed about it. But she does need some sophistication and understanding of the general world in which he and his associates operate."

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