The Incorporated Wife

In 1975, Hilary Callan published a paper on diplomats’ wives using the term incorporated wife.

In this edited volume, she and Shirley Ardener applied that concept to a broader set of occupations. I find it brilliant because the term alludes to the idea of marriage as two bodies becoming one while calling out the asymmetry of this corporeality, wives being “drawn into the ‘social person’ of their husbands”, as Callan puts it in the book’s introduction.

The term also connotes the couple as a corporation, which has helped me to think about how diplomatic couples work together. With its collection… show more.

I found Callan's and Ardener's edited volume about incorporated wives a fascinating and thought-provoking book.

The various case studies included in this volume demonstrate the inferior gender status of diplomatic representatives' and professional staffs' wives in foreign countries. Being ranked solely in terms of their husbands' status, these women seem to convey a pathetic picture of the gender social order. Although they enjoy luxurious and privileged lifestyles their advantages seem to foster their inferior and dependent status in a male-dominated arena.

This book inspired my analysis in which I elaborated on the Israeli wives who accompanied their husbands in their… show more.