Decision making and power relations Flashcards
Power and decision making
The power in the family is measured in terms of who makes most of the decisions in the family.Also, the importance of the decisions being made needs to be taken into account when measuring who holds power in the family. Feminists argue that power in families is gendered and it tends to favour men because they tend to be the main decision makers.
why do men tend to dominate decision making
They tend to earn more.
Among ethnic minorities communities, it is traditional for men to make decisions
Men feel their masculinity is threatened if they do not make the decisions
Gender roles are deeply ingrained into men and women through gender socialisation
Edgell
Interviewed 38 m/c couples. he found that Men are more likely to make fewer, but more important decisions: moving house, finances. Women make more decisions, but these are seen as less important: food. The partner who makes most of the decisions is not necessarily the more partner. It depends on the importance of decisions being made. Men make fewer decisions but these relate to more important areas such as finance. Therefore men have more power
Pahl and Vogler
Interviewed 1211 dual earner couples and their parents.
Housekeeping allowance system – husband gives the wife some money for housekeeping expenses and he controls the rest – more frequent system in the past.
Pooling system – both partners control the money equally. There is a move towards greater equality due to women’s increasing participation in the labour market. However, in most couples the money was shared, but the husband had overall financial control; he controlled the pooling.
In times of hardship, it is women who cut back on their own food and clothing to shield the children and husband from hard times.
Personal life perspective
Personal Life perspective focuses on the meanings couples give to who controls the money.
Smart argues that in same sex couples the control of money is not seen as relevant to equality in the relationships and same sex partners were happy to leave the control of money to their partner without feeling a lack of power in the relationship.
Smart argues this is because same sex couples enter relationships without the historical, gendered, heterosexual baggage of cultural meanings about money that see money as a source of power.
Weeks et al found co-independence was typical among same sex couples – they pooled some money for household bills, but also kept separate accounts for personal spending. This enabled them to share paying for bills, but retain control over how the rest of their own money is used.
