Decision making & Power

• The Distribution of Power & Authority

  • Decision making
  • Money management
  • Careers/employment
• Inequality in DECISION MAKING

  • EDGELL= women rarely had sole responsibility for decision making= if did= minor/unimportant things (e.g. domestic spending)
  • Financial decisions often taken by man alone= women rarely have the final say.
  • Often main earner=power in decision making.
• Inequality in MONEY MANAGEMENT

  • <45% of working women=mainly responsible for making decisions regarding finances.
  • Men earn more= often better off than women if this individualisation does exist.
  • Men earning more= gives them increased power.
• Inequality in CAREERS/EMPLOYMENT

  • Women's extra responsibilities in home= employment opportunities more restricted.
  • 3/4 part-time workers are female.
  • Women with children=unreliable= assumption they will have higher absence.
  • GATRELL= women who returned from materinity leave= faced hostility at work & seen as less reliable.
  • Women mainly= give up/reduce work to become primary childcarer.
• CULTURAL EXPLANATION


  • Division of labour determined by partriarchal norms & values that shape gender norms.
  • Women do most domestic work as it is what is expected of them.
  • GERSHUNY= couples whose parents had more equal relationship= more likely to share housework equally. = Parental role models important.
  • Social values gradually adapting= more women work full time= men should take on more domestic work.
  • DUNNE= lesbian couples= more symmetrical relationship=absence of traditional heterosexual 'gender scripts'
• MATERIAL EXPLANATION


  • Women earn less than men=more economic sense for women to do more housework=men more time earning money.
  • KAN= for every £10,000 a year more a woman earns, she does 2hrs less housework per week.
  • RAMOS= woman=breadwinner, man=unemployed= he does as much domestic work as she does.