Ohio University anthropology professor Anncorinne Freter-Abrams says that professional couples that work together stay together.
Anncorinne and her husband, Elliot Abrams, met at graduate school where they were both studying anthropology. After Elliot graduated, Anncorinne went to Honduras, and it was after she returned that he proposed.
I had been a field student in Honduras
so I had flown back and he drove from Athens. I arrived in the apartment and he said 'we have to get married ' and I looked at him and said 'can I at least put my suitcases down first
' Anncorinne said.
At the time of the proposal, Elliot was already employed at OU.
There were a lot of professional couples we knew who had jobs in different universities about 100 miles away
so we decided if we are going to make a commitment
we were going to be together in the same place
even if it meant one of us didn't really have an academic job
Anncorinne said.
Luckily, there was a job opening at OU and she joined Elliot as a professor the next year in offices right next door.
For some professional couples, like Phyllis and Joe Bernt who both graduated with English degrees, finding jobs in the correct field at the same university isn't always so easy.
We started out wanting to be English professors and had to give that up and find different careers. Joe ended up doing PR
and I became a regulatory accountant
said Phyllis, who is a professor and graduate program director for the J. Warren McClure School of Information and Telecommunication Systems.
The couple, not wanting to make either party suffer, both did what needed to be done.
We have always tried to make sure that neither one of us has to give anything up for the other person. So instead of one of us getting a job teaching and the other one having to sacrifice
we just both went and did other things
