‘Power is the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability tests’
Stephen Edgell (1980) researched this and found the following.
There are many ways that decision making and power are exercised in the family:
- How financial power is exercised – meaning that decisions such as where to live, which car to buy or where to go on holiday are usually made by the man (the major wage earner).
- Women only make minor decisions such as food purchases and children’s clothes.
Later John Pahl (1993) examined who controlled the money within the household. He separated the couples that were being interviewed into two groups:
- Those that had joint named accounts
- Those that had separate bank accounts
He made another split between those where the husband made the important financial decisions and those where the wife performed this function. Pahl found the following from the 102 couples who were interviewed:
- Husband Controlled Pooling (most likely relationship) 39 out of 102 couples were using this method to control their money. This method means that the couple have a joint bank account and the husband controls the most important financial decisions.
- Wife Controlled Pooling (second most common)
27 out of 102 couples were using this method.
The couple have a joint bank account but the wife has the control over major expenditure. This tended to be the case in middle-class couples, particularly when the woman had a higher income than the man. - Husband Control
22 out of 102 couples were using this method.
This methods sees the husband to have his own account and took control of the major financial issues in the family.However, this method was only found when the male had a high income, it was also the case in lower-class families where the wife doesn’t need an account as most of her income is spent in cash.
Christine Delphy (1992) also noted that when men buy products for themselves, the often spend more than their wives. Delphy calls this ‘differential consumption’
- Wife Control (least likely arrangement)
14 out of 102 couples were using this method.
This was commonly found in low-income couples where neither of them had a bank account and the woman controlled the earnings to pay the bills.
This study reveals the complexities of financial arrangements within different families. It also shows that most of the major decisions are made by the men but women do have some control, particularly in managing accounts on a daily rather than monthly basis. Pahl found that the most equal type of control is wife controlled pooling. He also found that in ¼ of all families the couple had similar incomes which meant decisions tended to be made jointly and equally, suggesting that, in domestic financial arrangements. Just like many other areas of life, women do not have equality in the family.
In addition, further evidence of lack of equality is provided by the Fawcett Society’s report, Home Truths (Geethika et al., 2002), which found that some women resorted to stockpiling their own savings without the knowledge of their husbands to provide a nest egg for their own financial security, with some women being afraid that their husbands might spend their money if they had found out about it. The report commented that despite a perception that many couples were now sharing financial decision making, men still made the decisions, particularly in low-income families.
Men also appear to have control when it comes to the importance of their job. In A tale of two nations? Juggling work and home in the new economy (2003), Irene Hardill wrote that women would often result in following their husband to a new part of the country, leaving their jobs and friends to further his career. Also in the past men often expected their wives to further enhance their careers by offering support and attending to their husband’s functions to help them appear more powerful.
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