Resources and Decision-Making in Households

Question 1

What is meant by inequality of resources and decision-making?

Answer 1

There’s inequality in how family resources are shared between men and women and this is linked to who control’s the family’s income and who has the power to make decision about how it’s spent.

Question 2

What do Barrett and McIntosh argue?

Answer 2

• Men gain far more from women’s domestic work than they give mack in financial support
• The financial support husbands give to their wives is unpredictable and comes with ‘strings’ attached
• Men usually make the decisions about spending on important items

Question 3

Describe a study that supports the idea that family members don’t share resources equally

Answer 3

• Kempson found that in low income families, women denied their own needs, like not going out or eating smaller portions of food, to make ends meet
• As women has no entitlement to a share of household resources, she’s likely to see any money she spends on herself , should be spent of essentials for the children. This keeps women in poverty

Question 4

What are the 2 main types of control over family incomes?

Answer 4

Pahl and Vogler argue:
- The allowance system: men give their wives an allowance and they have to budget to meet the family’s needs while the man retained any surplus income for himself
- Pooling: both partners have access to income and join responsibility for spendings, like a joint bank account (this is more common now)

Question 5

Describe a study that supports men make major financial decisions

Answer 5

• Hardill’s study of dual-career professional couples found that important decisions were taking either by the man alone or jointly, and that his career took priority when deciding whether to move house for a new job.

Question 6

Describe the ‘personal life’ perspective on money

Answer 6

• Focuses on the meanings couple give to who controls the money
• e.g. while we may assume the partner controlling the money is a sign of inequality, for some couples it may not have this meaning

Question 7

Give a study that supports the ‘personal life’ perspective on money

Answer 7

• Smart found that some same-sex couples attached no importance to who controlled the money and were perfectly happy to leave it to their partners, so they didn’t see the control of money as meaning inequality in the relationship
• This may be because they don’t have the same ‘heterosexual baggage of cultural meaning around money’ that see money as a source of power