Resources & Decision Making

• Pahl & Vogler: 


  Two main types of money management:

  1. Allowance system
  2. Pooling system
• Pahl & Vogler: Allowance system


  Men give their wives an allowance, out of which they have to budget to meet the family’s needs with the man retaining any surplus income for himself.
• Pahl & Vogler: Pooling system


  Both partners have access to income and a joint responsibility for expenditure - shared bank account.

  Pooling is in the rise and is not the most common system of money management.
• Edgell’s study of professional couples (1980)


  Very important (financial) decisions were either taken by husband alone or together - with his final say.

  Important decisions (about children’s education or where to go on holiday) were usually taken jointly, and not often by the wife alone.

  Less important decisions (home decor or children’s clothes / food purchases) were usually made by the wife.

  • The reason for this decision making pattern is because men earn more.
• Decision making


  It’s often assumed that pooling = more equal decisions, and is more common when both partners work full time. However, when pooled income is controlled by the husband, it tends to give them more power in major financial decisions (although not as much power as allowance systems)

  • Pahl & Vogler: found that even where there was pooling, men usually made the major financial decisions.
• Berrett & McIntosh note:

  • Men gain far more from women’s domestic labour than they give back in financial support.
  • The financial support they do give is often unpredictable and fines with ‘strings’ attatched.
  • Men usually make decisions about spending on important items. Research shows money and food aren’t split equally.