Power and Marriage: The Upper Hand

In marriage, partners devise and create all the time the line of power.  Who has it most?  Does it change the dynamics of the marriage? Does it change the identity of the individuals? So many thought and concepts about power within a relationship like marriage always leads to conflict whether is often or seldom.

In the early to mid 1800s, "The Cult of True Womenhood" was a highly defining concept about women who married. Piety, Purity, Submissiveness and Domesticity were the four virtues that husbands judged in their spouses to have and uphold always. Since it was the husband's job to provide and made sure his partner lived up to these "codes", this readily gave men power over their women, home and marriage.
During that time period, most women were accepting to live under these conditions because marriage was on their course of adulthood, until years later, revolutions occured where women changed their mindset and perspective of their roles.

Today the civil union of marriages has evolved over time where the equity of power isnt much relied on the man but women have stepped up and assume majority power within a marriage. In today's society, women are more outspoken, involved and assume primary positions in many aspects of power not only in marriage but life.

"The Powers of Intimate Companions" was a study conducted in China by Professor Xu Anqi. He observed how partners within marriage use power for household and family decisions. Types of power such as "orchestration power" which didnt consume time for decisions but affected the family orientation and "implementaion power" which was time-consuming for unimportant decisions.  From there, measurements such as indicators for households decisons e.g. everyday choices for money, affairs for the home, the weight of everday decisions for the household, major family decisions e.g. investments, loans, and "who" had the power were used . Anqi states that the cultural norms of a socioeconomic status in the marriage, either spouse would attain more power. In this case, it would be true because society does value the size of a paycheck for most power but other factors are included such as gender, culture, location etc. Results stated that men do hold most of the power in the household and marriage and this doesnt affect how labor is dispered, if women gained greater satisfaction if they had more power, but it proved how equality should be made between partners first so the household is more effective.

After reading this article, it seems that power is more rested within the spouses rather than spliting throughout the household. Marriage and household are two seperate entities that work hand and hand but if one isnt working then the other will falter.

References:
Anqi, Xu. "The Power of Intimate Companions: Probing the Mechanisms that Affect Sense of Gender Equality. Chinese Anthropology and Sociology. 2011. Vol 43. pg 24-51.
http://youtu.be/KgdIZC8CmOE