Abstract
This study focused on the relationships between femininity and expected satisfaction over the eight stages of married life listed by Duvall in 1977. Single undergraduates indicated personal expected levels of satisfaction at the stages of marriage and completed the Bem Sex-role Inventory. It was predicted that the phase before children are born and the phase after children leave home would be significantly higher in anticipated satisfaction than the phase when children are at home, thereby reflecting in a general way the U-shaped pattern that has often been reported in studies of actual marital satisfaction. Results support the prediction for women but are more in line with an hypothesis of a linear decline for men. Femininity was more predictive of expected satisfaction than was masculinity over the stages of married life, and women high on femininity showed the most pronounced U-shaped pattern.