Summer party invitations can be delightful if yours is the name on the invitation. Work events are potentially fun and a valuable way to make or keep contacts. But spare a thought for your other half, relegated — at least for the length of an evening of small talk — to the status of a “plus one”.

Academics have long taken an interest in the changing role of the supportive spouse, including the ways your partner can help your career. Many conclude the effects are measurable, and go way beyond turning up at work functions and being pleasant. But things can get complicated.

Monique Valcour, a researcher and executive coach based in France who studies dual-career couples, says lack of support can sink a career. “With dual careers there is always a constant negotiation,” she says, “and it is impossible for each partner to get everything they want all the time for their career.”