What do sociologists think regarding power in relationships and the part money plays?

Question 1

Pahl (Interactionist - regarding the personal perspective on money)

Answer 1

• pooling money doesn’t necessarily mean the relationship is equal, we’d need to know who controls the pooled money and whether each partner contributes equally

Question 2

Vogler (Interactionist - regarding the personal perspective on money)

Answer 2

• cohabiting couples are less likely to pool their money, perhaps from a desire to maintain independence

Question 3

Nyman (Interactionist - regarding the personal perspective on money)

Answer 3

• notes that money has no automatic, fixed or natural meaning and different couples can define it in different ways

Question 4

Smart (Interactionist - regarding the personal perspective on money)

Answer 4

• found that some gay people attached no importance to who controlled money and didn’t see the control of money as symbolic of either equality or inequality

Question 5

Weeks et al (Interactionist - regarding the personal perspective on money)

Answer 5

• the typical pattern was pooling some money for household spending, combined with separate accounts for personal spending

Question 6

Barrett and McIntosh (regarding changes in the nature and extent of power relationships)

Answer 6

• men gain far more from women’s domestic work than they give back in financial support, it is often unpredictable and with ‘strings attached’

Question 7

Kempson (regarding changes in the nature and extent of power relationships)

Answer 7

• among low-income families, women denied their own needs, not going out and eating smaller portions of food or skipping meals

Question 8

Pahl (regarding changes in the nature and extent of power relationships)

Answer 8

• carried out a study on who has control of finances

- identified two main types of control over family incomes, pooling and allowance system

Question 9

Edgell (regarding changes in the nature and extent of power relationships)

Answer 9

• argues that equality is most effectively assessed by reference to the distribution of marital power which can be analysed by studying decision-making

Question 10

Hardill (regarding changes in the nature and extent of power relationships)

Answer 10

• studied 30 dual career couples and found males usually made the very important decisions and the male’s career took priority when deciding whether to move house for a new job

Question 11

Bernand (regarding changes in the nature and extent of power relationships)

Answer 11

• observed that although women often possess a degree of power in their marriage, in many ways this power is deemed to be illegitimate eg. derogatory cultural sayings

Question 12

Laurie and Gershuny (regarding changes in the nature and extent of power relationships)

Answer 12

• found that women who were high earning, well-qualified professionals were more likely to have an equal say