Topic 3- Couples

• Increasing equality in gender roles in relationships

  • Financial decisions
  • Child rearing
  • Progression
  • Housing
  • Day to day decision making
• Financial decisions


  • Women are most likely to make financial decisions
  • There is a pay gap difference where men still have most financial power
• Child rearing


  • 75% of couples made joint decisions
  • 3/10 women give up work time for childcare, while 1/20 men give up work time
  • Women's financial power is reduced after childbearing, childcare impacts women's career progression
• Progression


  • Balances and decision making are becoming more equal
  • Resources and decision making are becoming more equal
• Housing


  • Men set budgets for housing
  • Men earn more money so are more dominant, women are more likely to make decisions about smaller home purchases like furnishings or decoration
• Day to day decision making

  • Women have dominance over day to day decisions
  • Men are less likely to do food shopping alone than women, although half of couples surveyed said it was shared
• Changes with the family and in wider society have indicated more equity
• In the 1950s there were segregated conjugal roles, with the husband instrumental and the wife expressive
• In the 1970s there was a 'march of progress' towards joint conjugal roles
• In the 1990s Anthony Giddens described an egalitarian (equal) family with greater gender equality, greater individualism, and a negotiated family
• In post-modernism, there is greater gender equality and greater individualism leading to a negotiated family