From the archive: Is your wife your best asset?

Is your wife a liability or an asset? This is the question posed by our archive issue this week; contentious in our current post #MeToo climate perhaps, but a serious concern in 1971 for white-collar workers. As Barry the banker worked his way up the greasy pole he didn’t realise that one day his wife – let’s call her Laura – would be ‘vetted’ to assess whether he was a credible candidate for promotion: a terrifying prospect for any self-respecting businessman with a strong-willed wife.

According to a study, ‘The Wives of Management’, a businessman’s trouble-and-strife could be just that and more. ‘She can ruin his career, ‘from drinking too much, or dressing outlandishly, to pushing him too much – or not enough’.

Despite the worry that they’d have one sherry too many and flash the CEO, wives played a pivotal role in their husbands’ careers, particularly when it came to shmoozing and boozing.

The reason for this? The businessman’s wife was thought to reveal an inner portal into the true character of said businessman, but she was also a valuable tool to win over in case Barry needed reprimanding over his liquid lunches.

In order to set up these cross-examinations, drinks parties and formal dinners were arranged, because, after all: ‘It is less embarrassing if the firm arranged to vet the wives at an informal occasion.’

After speaking to more than 88 businessmen, sociologists Raymond and Janice Pahl noted that bringing their wives to work events often triggered feelings of panic in their spouses. One wife’s behaviour at a company dinner became something of an urban legend.

‘The wife of the CEO had been invited to a party and in the midst of a particularly witty piece of conversation she suddenly realised that she had just leant across and cut her companion’s dinner up into small pieces for him.’ Lucky him, I say.