Decision making and money

Decision making and money

1. Barrett and McIntosh

   • Men gain more in domestic work than they give back in financial support
   • Finacial support is often unpredictable and comes with string attached
   • Men make big decisions about what to spend money on

2. Pahl and Vogler

   • The allowance system
     • When husbands give their wives an allowance to meet the families needs and keeping the surplus for himself
   • Pooling
     • When both partners have access to income and joint responsibility eg. joint bank account
     • Although this evokes more equality, they found that men still had the major final decisions

3. Edgell

   • Argues that the reason the man usually has the final decision is because he earns more. Most commonly, men earn more then their wives

4. The meaning of money

   • Cohabiting relationships less likely to poole their money because they want to maintain their independence
   • Nyman - money can mean different things in different relationships

5. The personal life perspective

   • Although we may assume that the one controlling the money has the most control, this is not always the case. For some couples it may not have this meaning
   • Smart - found that in gay/lesbian families they attached no importance to who controlled the money
     • Could be due to no sex - typing