Decision Making

• Edgell- Found that decision making could be categorised into 3 into categories: very important, important, less important. Very important imcluded thing such as mortgage, bills and electrics. Less important included things such as food plans and household decisions. Men were often in charge of the very important and women were in charge of less important.
• Barrett- Suggested that womens financial support is often unpredictable. Womens labour generally outweighs the financial support they receive.
• Pahl&Vogler- Argue the reason men dominate decision making is because they are the main breadwinner. They identified 2 types of control over decision making. Pooling which is where both partners have access to income and a joint responsibility for expenditure. Allowance system where the man gives their wives an allowance for the woman to spend, the man then keeps the rest for himself.
• Nyman- Suggests that money has no fixed meaning and it can differ for each couple.
• Vogler et al - Suggests that cohabiting couples were less likely to share domestic tasks .
• Smart- Suggested that same sex couples attached no importance to who controlled money.
• Weeks et al- The pattern was to pool resources for household spending but have separate accounts for spending.