Who Has It and Who Gets It? the Role of Gender, Resources, and Transitions for Power Within Couples
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Who Has It and Who Gets It? The Role of Gender, Resources, and Transitions for Power within Couples Yvonne Lott 1. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Johannes Huinink 2. Gutacherin: Prof. Dr. Hannah Bruckner¨ Termin des Kolloquiums: 06.02.2012 Acknowledgement I wish to thank everybody who was directly or indirectly involved in the process of writing the thesis. First of all, I would like to thank my three advisors, Johannes Huinink, Hannah Bruckner,¨ and Martin Kohli, who have supported me throughout this journey. I owe much gratitude to Jo- hannes Huinink for his advice and encouragement during the past three years and to Hannah Bruckner¨ for the opportunity to develop my work in the inspiring environment of the Center for Research on Inequalities and the Life Course (CIQLE). I would also like to thank Claudia Born, whose critical look at my research and constructive suggestions were very en- riching. Furthermore, I would like to give special thanks to the faculty members of the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS) and to the SOEP Team at the German Institut for Economic Research Berlin (DIW Berlin). Not only did their financial support and their scientific assistance but also the animate and cordial atmosphere help advancing and completing my thesis. I have to thank especially Pe- ter Krause, Martin Kroh, Jan Marcus, Reinhard Schunck, Katja Uglanova, Sergi Vidal, and Michael Windzio for their support. Likewise, I would like to thank Janne Grote, Elma Laguna, Fatma Rebeggiani, Liuben Siarov, and Matthias Wingens, who were involved in the early period of my research and who contributed many creative ideas and suggestions. Finally, I wish to thank friends and family for their mental backup and for having tolerated my physical absence and psychological absorption particularly during the past year. Last but not least, Philipp deserves special thanks. Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Empirical evidence 12 2.1 Applying resource theory and exchange theory – studies on decision-making . 13 2.2Studiesoncontroloverfinances........................ 14 2.3Studiesonbargainingpower.......................... 20 2.4 Applying doing gender theory . ...................... 21 2.5 Applying a life course perspective . ...................... 24 2.6 Couples and power in social psychological research .............. 27 2.7 Power within couples – German research . .................. 29 2.8Concludingremarks............................... 32 3 Theoretical background 33 3.1Theoreticalapproachestopowerinintimaterelationships........... 37 3.2Socialexchangetheory............................. 42 3.2.1 Homans – the economic pigeon theory of interaction . ...... 46 3.2.2 Blau – a sociological perspective on exchange . .......... 48 3.2.3 Emerson – power-dependence relations . .............. 51 3.2.4 Thibaut and Kelly – towards game theory . .............. 52 3.2.5 Concluding remarks .......................... 55 3.3Resourcetheory................................. 56 3.4Justiceandfairness–equitytheory....................... 58 3.5 Game theory and the cooperative bargaining model .............. 60 3.6 Beyond gender roles – doing gender and gendered social structure ...... 64 3.6.1 The interactional implication of gender . .............. 66 3.6.2 The structural implication of gender .................. 69 3.6.3 Gender as social institution . ...................... 72 3.7Bringingtogetherrationalchoicetheoryandgendertheory.......... 75 3.8Powerandtransitions–thelifecourseperspective............... 78 3.8.1 Life courses, social structure and the welfare state . .......... 79 3.8.2 Gender policy regimes and the institutional doing gender . ...... 83 3.8.3 Couples, power and transitions . .................. 85 3.9Poweroutcomes–decisions,control,andinfluence.............. 88 3.10 Concluding remarks . .............................. 93 4 Objectives and hypotheses 94 4.1Objectives.................................... 94 4.2 Hypotheses . .............................. 97 i 5 Data, samples, and variables 99 5.1Data....................................... 99 5.2Samples..................................... 100 5.3Dependentvariables............................... 101 5.4Explanatoryvariables.............................. 103 5.5Controls..................................... 107 6 Method 113 6.1Descriptiveanalysis............................... 118 6.2Binary,multinomialandorderedlogisticregressionmodels.......... 119 6.3Bivariateprobitmodel............................. 125 6.4Heckitmethod..................................126 6.5Fixedeffectsmodel............................... 127 6.6 The random effects model and the hybrid model . .............. 131 7 Resources, social relations, and gender arrangements 133 7.1Generaloverview................................ 134 7.1.1 Marriage and cohabitation . ...................... 134 7.1.2 Relative income and household income . .............. 138 7.1.3 Education and age . .......................... 142 7.1.4 Alternative social relations . ...................... 143 7.1.5 Commitment to the relationship . .................. 144 7.1.6 Division of labor . .......................... 145 7.1.7 Summary . .............................. 146 7.2Basesandoutcomes–aretheyrelated?.................... 149 7.2.1 Money matters . .......................... 158 7.2.2 Education and age matter – butpredominantlyinmalepartners’perception............ 162 7.2.3 Having a lower employment status: Apoweradvantageforfemalepartners?................ 164 7.2.4 Commitment: a question of equality .................. 167 7.2.5 The division of labor and financial power: doing gender in couples . 167 7.2.6 Summary . .............................. 170 8 The division of labor and financial power – interrelated? 173 9 The relation between control and decisions 176 9.1Dotheygotogether?.............................. 176 9.2Whatexplainswhat?.............................. 181 ii 10 The partners’ response behaviors 185 10.1 Perceiving power in the same way . ...................... 186 10.2 Different perceptions of power allocation within couples . .......... 192 11 Power in East and West – a comparison 196 12 The role of transitions 209 12.1 Marriage ..................................... 214 12.2 Children ..................................... 215 12.3 Relative employment status . .......................... 216 12.4 Income, household income, and child care . .................. 218 12.5 Summary . .............................. 221 13 Social influene and influence on results 223 13.1 General overview . .............................. 225 13.1.1 Commitment .............................. 227 13.1.2 Gender role attitudes .......................... 231 13.1.3 Summary . .............................. 232 13.2 A relative measure of non-financial power . .................. 235 13.3 Commitment, values, and other power bases – factors related to non-financial power . .................. 236 13.4 Summary . .............................. 246 14 Conclusion and discussion 252 14.1 Summary of findings .............................. 253 14.2 Implications for future research . ...................... 260 References 262 A Appendix 1 iii List of Tables 1 Dependentvariablesoftheanalysis.......................102 2 Partners’ response behaviors for control over the income . .......... 103 3 Partners’ response behaviors for financial decision-making .......... 103 4 VariablesintheSOEPsample......................... 111 5 Variables in the pairfam sample........................ 112 6 Financialpoweroutcomesinmarriagesandcohabitations........... 136 7 Partners’ relative incomes in household income groups . ...... 141 8 Test statistics for the multinomial logistic regression models – financial power 151 9 Likelihood-ratio-test for explanatory variables – financial power . ...... 152 10 Control over the income in her response . .................. 154 11 Controlovertheincomeinhisperception................... 155 12 Decision-makinginherperception....................... 156 13 Decision-makinginhisperception....................... 157 14 Predictedvaluesforcontrolovertheincomeandageratio...........163 15 Predictedvaluesfordecision-makingandeducationratio........... 163 16 Predicted values for control over the income and relative employment status . 164 17 Predicted values for decision-making and relative employment status . 165 18 Bivariate probit models for female respondents . .............. 174 19 Bivariate probit models for male respondents . .............. 175 20 Firstmodelforcontrolovertheincome.................... 177 21 Secondmodelforcontrolovertheincome................... 178 22 Firstmodelfordecision-making........................ 179 23 Secondmodelfordecision-making....................... 180 24 Exclusivecontrolanddecisions.........................184 25 Her control – identical responses . ...................... 187 26 His control – identical responses . ...................... 188 27 Her decision-making – identical responses . .................. 189 28 His decision-making – identical responses . .................. 190 29 Joint pool – identical responses . ...................... 191 30 Contradicting responses . .......................... 192 31 Different response behaviors – control over the income . .......... 194 32 Different response behaviors – decision-making . .............. 195 33 Controlovermoneyanddecision-makinginEastandWest.......... 197 34 Predictedvaluesforcontrolandeducationratio................ 199 35 Control over the income in West German couples . .............. 205 36 Control over the income in East