When I started researching for my paper I initially decided that I would research on power between couples alone. However after many hours of reading countless journal articles a different question became apparent. When a woman holds equal or more power in a relationship, what are the consequences?
Resource theory of power conceptualizes marriage as a set of exchange of relations in which the balance of power rests with the partner who contributes most resources to the marriage.
(Ferree, 1990, in Volger 2008)
Partners with a larger income are more likely to play a dominant role in decision making (Blood and Woolfe 1960, in Volger 2008). They came to the conclusion that as wives gained access to paid employment they also gained access to more power within the relationship. Interestingly enough I found similar findings when I conducted my interview. The interviewee was a 56 year old male, due to financial circumstances his wife had recently become the breadwinner. He said when he had been the breadwinner that he felt he “held the upper hand” when it came to decision making. However he said now that his wife is the breadwinner she “runs the show”.
Volger discusses in her article how marriage ‘should’ be based on equal sharing. Ideally all money within the marriage should be shared equally regardless of who contributes most. Unfortunately such an egalitarian attitude is rare, research shows that there is a sense that individuals ‘own’ what they earn. The money that they make is ‘theirs’ and they have a right to do what they like with it (Volger 2008, p.690). In the case of my interviewee the above was definitely true. He explained how if he needed money for something as simple as petrol, asking his wife was always a “huge ordeal”.
Volger’s article highlights this problem stating that ‘breadwinners feel they have legitimate right to power’ and they use this when it comes to money and decision making. This legitimate right to power can have a dramatic impact on the relationship, as the interviewee himself said his wife’s breadwinner role had put “a huge amount of stress” on his marriage. Felmlee also talks about the ‘repercussions of gender imbalances’ and how the balance of power in romantic relationships could very well influence its durability (Felmlee 1994, p276).
Power can be described as having the ability to control or influence people. As we have already seen, when it comes to relationships the person who holds the most power usually earns the most money. Furthermore when it comes to a shift in power between couples what does this mean for the delegating of housework and child rearing? I will investigate this topic, keeping in mind the ever growing amount of women who are in paid employment, many of whom are the main breadwinners in their household. When we think about a traditional household we think of the male breadwinner, the wife or partner staying home to take care of the children and look after household chores.
Nowadays there are many women who are wives and partners that are also in paid employment. The glory days of the male breadwinner seem to be rapidly coming to a halt. However the notion of the domesticated woman is not. From reading Hochschild’s article and her views on the working mother I believe my argument is ever more poignant. The study conducted interviewed both men and women who worked an average of 35 hours week or more. Hochschild’s found that women on average were predominantly in charge of looking after the household chores after they finished their day job. These chores which included tending to the children’s needs, cooking and cleaning were all part of what Hochschild labelled the ‘second shift’. When the time spent at these chores were added up women worked ‘roughly 15 hours longer each week than men’ (Hochschild 1989, p.259).
These findings were further supported my interviewee, who although now earned less than his wife and relatively the same hours, did not take on any responsibility for household chores or child rearing. ‘Distribution of household labour is gendered in the same way that paid work is gendered’ (Walker 1996, p813). When I asked the interviewee did he feel he should have to contribute in household chores he said “not really, she looks after inside and I look after outside”. Nonetheless it is worth keeping in mind that the lawn needs to be cut once a week and on a seasonal basis, the dinner however needs to be cooked every day.
So how is it that these female breadwinners who have gained power by financial liberation in the home, are still slaves to the ‘second shift’? Walker argues in her article that the ‘less desirable tasks are performed by women and status has a way of reducing men’s but not women’s participation in these tasks’ (Walker 1996, p813). Unfortunately it seems that this is indeed the case for the majority of women. Regardless of working equal amounts of hours or making more money than their spouses, women carry out nearly all of the required housework. The real issue is that the so called ‘power’ working women have is irrelevant. There is no power gained for the working woman when she is expected to work essentially two jobs. The power is lost to her general health and well-being as wasunveiled in an interview of 1000 men, women and people. The results showed that working mothers were ‘more likely than any other group to be anxious’ (Throits1985, inHochschild p259) also reporting hallucinations and high stress levels.
The findings in relation to women, power and the division of housework are appalling especially for this day in age, yet many people will agree the results aren’t entirely surprising. The article by Alexis J. Walker ‘Gender, power and the remote control’ was another eye opener to the ever the dominant role the male plays within the home. Walker found that heterosexual men generally dominated the remote control device (RCD) and program selection when watching television with their partner. When their spouses were interviewed in relation to the their RCD use only 30% said they would like to change the men’s behaviour( Walker 1996, p820). These results show a disappointing but realistic view of resignation to the way things are reaffirming the evidence of hidden power than men posess.
In conclusionto this paper I think that it is suffice to say that a woman’s status in the workplace, has very little bearing over the status or power she has at home. Nonetheless the working mother may be seen to the wider public as more egalitarian than the housewife. However from the findings such equality generally does not exist. The working mother works two shifts, one in the office and another when she gets home. The second shift at home is carried at alone with little or no help from her partner or husband despite the couple working the same amount of hours outside the home. Does the working women have power, perhaps in financial contribution? Yet this ‘power’ is suppressed by the ever suppressing role that the woman must do gender, acting in ways consistent to social structures.
The Harney Scoop. 