While spouses of diplomats and business executives can legally work in the U.S., those married to computer programmers and software engineers who come to the U.S. under H-1B visa status, a guest worker program for highly skilled professionals, cannot. Advocates of restrictive immigration laws say that extending work authorization to dependents would take jobs away from Americans.
See "Immigrant Wives' Visa Status Keeps Them Out of Workplace", S. Mitra Kalita, The Washington Post, October 2, 2005