Pooling and allowance Flashcards
What was Hardills study and what did she find?
39 dual career professional couples
Found important decisions were usually taken by either the an alone or jointly.
Males career normally took priority when deciding whether to move house.
What did Finch observe?
Women’s lives tend to be structured around their husbands careers.
What did Edgells say about decision making?
Very important decision - Taken by husband alone or jointly with husband having the final say.
Important decision - Taken jointly or by the wife alone.
Less important decisions - Soley made by the wife
What does Edgell argue the reason is why men are more likely to take decision?
They earn more.
Women are often dependant on them economically, having less say in decision making.
What did Laurie and Gershuny find?
By 1995
70% of couples said they had equal say in decisions.
They found women who were higher earning, well qualified professions were more likely to have a say.
What do Paul and Volger say?
There are two main types of control over family income
Allowance system
Pooling
What is the Allowance system?
Men give their wives an allowance out of which they have to budget to meet family needs
With the man retaining any surplus income for himself
What is Pooling?
Both partners have access to income and joint responsibility for expenditure
On an increase and is now most common money management system
What Volger et al find?
Cohabiting couples were less likely to pool their money.
However cohabiting couples are more likely than married couples to share domestic tasks easily.
What does Nyman say?
Money has no automatic, fixed or natural meaning and different couples can define it in different ways
These meanings can reflect the nature of their relationship.
What do feminists argue about the inequality of decision making?
In patriarchal society cultural definition of men as decision makers is deeply ingrained in society is ingrain and installed in society through gender role socialisation.
Until this definition is challenge decision making is unlikely to be equal.
What is the personal life perspective about money?
it is the meanings people give to who controlled the money.
The meanings that money may have in relationships cannot be taken for granted.
What does Smart say?
Some gay and lesbians attached no importance to
who controlled the money and were perfectly happy to leave this to their partners.
They don’t see the control of money as meaning equality or inequality.
What did Week et al say?
Typical pattern was pooling some money for household spending, together with separate accounts for personal spending.
Similar to Volger et al cohabiting couples.
What does Smart say about same sex couples?
They do what suits them as a couple.
They do not enter relationships with the same historical, genders heterosexual baggage of cultural meanings around money and see money as a source of power.
