decision making in households

• pahl and vogler 


  identify 2 types of control over family income

  1. allowance system - men give wives allowance - men keeps the surplus income
  2. pooling - both partners have access to income e.g joint bank account

  found men still make majority of financial decisions
• edgell


  study of professional couples and found

  • very important decisions - taken be husband or had the final say e.g finance, moving house
  • important decisions - taking jointly e.g Childs education, holidays
  • less important decisions - taken by the wife e.g food shopping
  • argues this was because men earned more
• personal life perspective on money

  focuses on the meanings couples give to who controls the money

  argue money isn't always a sign of inequality in relationships
• smart 


  • found that some gay men and lesbians attached no important to who controlled the money
  • they did not see the control of money as meaning either equality or inequality in relationships
  • argues there is greater freedom in same sex couples as they did not enter relationships with same patriarchal, gendered meanings of money as a source of power
• gershuny 


  survey of young married couples with children concludes that the decision to have children, although jointly reached, dramatically changes the life of the mother rather than the father – especially in regard to career advancement.