As recent trends show a slowing down in married mothers’ labor force participation and continuing debate over the importance of maternal care, we explore married men’s ideologies and reality regarding their wives’ employment. Using in-depth interviews with 50 married men, we develop a typology of men’s ideal and reality: traditional (stay-at-home wife), egalitarian (working wife), expectant traditional (ideal is stay-at-home wife, reality is working wife), and expectant egalitarian (ideal is working wife, reality is stay-at-home wife). Traditional men emphasize the benefits of maternal care and importance of their own careers, but traditional expectant men are unable to earn enough money or are thwarted by their wife’s desire to work. Egalitarian men reject traditional roles, support their wife’s career, and value the benefits to children and family of maternal employment, but expectant egalitarian men find themselves in an unexpected position when their wives do not return to work after educational pursuits.