Beliefs About Money in Families: Balancing Unity, Autonomy, and Gender Equality

Abstract

Objective: This study provides the first nationally representative data on U.S. adults' perceptions of income sharing within families. Background: Modern couples confront tensions between ideals of mutual interests and values of economic autonomy, a departure from fitting themselves into culturally expected family arrangements of the past. This study teases apart the conditions under which people might prioritize one cultural value over another. Method: The author conducted a nationally representative survey experiment (N = 3,986 individuals). The respondents selected an income allocation arrangement for a fictional couple with varied relationships investments (i.e., marriage, parenthood, length of relationship) and earning disparities. Results: Although stronger relationship investments were associated with greater support for sharing all income, the most commonly selected income allocation arrangement was a hybrid arrangement of sharing some income and keeping the rest separate. When respondents preferred some amount of financial autonomy, the primary earner was expected to maintain ownership of a greater amount of the total household income. The preferred level of withholding income was slightly larger in magnitude when women were shown as the primary earner when compared with men shown as the primary earner. Conclusion: The pursuit of economic autonomy, in combination with beliefs about gender, are important dimensions of gender inequality located within families.

What About Money? Earnings, Household Financial Organization, and Housework

“…Nevertheless, such efforts have suffered from a major limitation: Money has been conceptualized and operationalized as a unidimensional construct in terms of earnings (Bittman et al, ; Brines, ; Carlson & Lynch, ; Gupta, , ; Kan, ; Killewald, ; Killewald & Gough, ; Usdansky & Parker, ). Although much has been written about the intrahousehold economy and its inequalities in couple relationships (Bennett, ; Himmelweit et al, ; Pahl, , , ; Pepin, ; Vogler, , ), we still know little about whether and how the distribution, management, and control of one's own and the couple's earnings shape the gendered housework participation of women and men. Seeking to fill this gap, this research reexamined the relationship between money and housework by interrogating the role played by household financial organization in shaping the housework time of women and men and in moderating the influence of earnings on housework.…”

“…Research on the relationship between money and housework has tended to consider money as a unidimensional construct in terms of earnings or wage (Bittman et al, ; Carlson & Lynch, ; Gupta, ; Kan, ; Killewald, ). A separate line of scholarship has emphasized the importance of control of resources and decision‐making authority in shaping marital power (Blood & Wolfe, ; Lundberg & Pollak, ; Pepin, ; Rodman, ; Tichenor, ), which is crucial to the negotiation of domestic labor division (Bianchi et al, ). Nevertheless, how intrahousehold financial organization influences partners' housework participation remains an open empirical question.…”

“…Nevertheless, how intrahousehold financial organization influences partners' housework participation remains an open empirical question. Partners' decisions to pool their earnings or to maintain financial independence and their control of household financial decisions tell of the checks and balances of power between partners (Pahl, ; Pepin, ; Tichenor, ; Yodanis & Lauer, ). Vogler (, p. 691) argued that “the ways in which couples organize money within the family has an independent effect on power, over and above the resources each person contributes.” Financial organization also serves as a major medium through which money “talks” in couple relationships (Pahl, , ; Vogler, ), and may thus moderate when and how earnings translate into power (Bennett, ; Pahl, ).…”

“…Two crucial processes intervene between partners' receipt of earnings in the labor market and the intrahousehold inequalities resulting from these earnings (Bennett, ). The first is partners' management of earnings (Pahl, ; Pepin, ; Vogler, ). The following three major systems of financial management exist (Bisdee, Daly, & Price, ; Pahl, ; Vogler, ): pooling, whole wage, and independent.…”

Social Justice: Disparities in Average Earnings across Portuguese Municipalities

“…Here, public policies have a decisive role to play; however, sometimes the family contexts have more implications on gender disparities rather than social strategies (Castellano et al 2018). Wage disparities have, in turn, their relevance inside the family unit (Pepin 2019), and implications for the roles taken on by the different family members, namely in terms of income share. In fact, the social contexts are interrelated with other dimensions, namely economic, and, consequently social policy design cannot be disassociated from the economic, cultural, and environmental strategies (Perugini and Pompei 2016).…”