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

Talk to Me Honey!

Jane and Joe James have been married for 15 yrs with two kids. In the the past two years their level of intimacy has decreased drastically. Small fights would turn into days of not speaking. Constant yelling and screaming which is slowly affecting their children, Sam and Mary has now put the question of divorced in the air.

Most couples who suffer from lack of communication resort to a means to an end when the relationship has ended. Couples dont realize that when they end things, it affects a group of people who surrounded  them. Communication is one the three components that is needed for any relationship to survive. Why is it that couples tend to drift from conversation when conversing got them to where they are? Problems that arise typically with conflicted relationships are money, the home, family, work etc.  One problem that probably doesnt seem obvious but attributes to alot is the women in the relationship. Men who want submissive wives and women who conform to that role will respond less to their spouses negative antics.  Non-traditional women are more responsive and would react more. If one or the other occurs, it seems that the struggle for control is always at a tug.

Keith Sanford, psychologist at Baylor University conducted an experiment that used different assesments to measure conflict communication with in married couples. Via questionaires and reports through self, partner and observer showed how couples handled conflict. Other factors such as validity with the questionnaires and the context of the data had to be included in the experiment to validate their results. Results showed for the context-general assesment, more wives engage in communication when more behaviors and trait-like qualities arised as well in the context-specific assesment which dealt with a single event. For husbands, in the context-general assesments, men scored lower and the correlation between the context-general and context-specific was not significant. Overall, there was significant difference in the partner-reports used. 

What does this all say? In my observations, it shows that women would react more in situations of conflicts that readily calls for conflict(s) whereas men dont probably see where conflict began and just feed into because its in their nature to "fight" and "argue " back. Whether a traditional or modern wife, conflict doesnt change just the actions and reactions involved have evolved over time just like men and women. The ability to communication isnt going to change. Use of verbal communication and in order to resolve conflict before it escalates into something greater has to change between the people who started it.

References:

Sanford, Keith. "Assessing Conflict Communication in Couples: Comparing the

Validity of Self-Report, Partner-Report, and Observer Ratings.  Journal of Family Psychology. 2009. Vol 24. 165-174.
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Housewives: Submissive or Independent?

The tradition of marriage starts with man and woman accepting and abiding by the following vows: Do you Jane take John to be your lawfully wedding husband and vice verse, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer until death do us part. Yes is said and the sanctity of marriage throughout their lives should be upheld and carried out till death. Womp!!!

The sanctity of marriage today has changed constantly over the years especially now where society influences more and more the different types of marriages that can make people happy today. The "traditional" marriage of man and women happens all the time, but do the roles heavily dictate or help facilitate the marriage?

In a marriage, the struggle for power is always sought. If equal, then the co-spouses will function fine. If not problems and abuse can arise. Like many marriages anywhere, abuse is taboo unless seen and heard. In a article called" Why do People Blame Victims of Abuse? The Role of Sterotypes of Women on Perceptions of Blame ", researchers found that traditional housewives suffer less abuse  when they are submissive to their husbands and their actions because their more "warm". Non-traditional women who are outspoken and competent are more likely to respond and react to abuse which enables it.

This study was conducted with 118 Midwestern college students depicting a scenario of a married couple "John and Sue". Manipulating the gender roles without participants knowing e. g.  income for men and women and domestic roles, results showed that non-traditional women suffered more because of how they responded to the to perpretrator and the provocation that preceeded it.

After reading this and having a thought, all I could think is, perception gives reason to provocation which gives power. Say that three times!

References:
Arriaga, B. Zemenia. Cappeza, M. Nicole. " Why do People Blame Victims of Abuse? The Role of Sterotypes of Women on Perceptions of Blame". Sex Roles. 2008. Vol 59. P839-850.
http://youtu.be/OOdPLr4zyNU

Androgyme???

Weird Title, I know but look at the prefix of the word, "androgy". Really it should be androgyny but the sexes of 2011 are tugging for the characteristics they should embrace. So what if a man is in tune with his feminine side and vice verse for a woman; but with women its always a issue and a finger-pointer because were told to always act like a lady.

I found a article called "Watching Aggressive, Attractive, Female Protagonists Shapes Gender Roles for Women Among Male and Female Undergraduate Viewers". Long title, but the experiment really makes you wonder how much do actresses influence society due to their roles in films. The study in this article took 122 undergraduate students male and female from the West Coast area in the U.S. and under laboratory conditions explored gender expectations roles or GRE's for the female protagonist in selected films.

Results showed that stereotypical feminine and masculine gender role expectations for female protagonists who were highly attractive and aggressive were greatly endorsed rather than an female protagonist who was less attractive. 

Aggression and attraction in women in some cultures are scowled upon; can be seen as defiant, disrespectful and unbecoming of women. The U.S .being a liberal country allows women of all kind and their various traits to be on display. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and in this case, 122 beholders found that sexier, statuesque, semi masculine women are better suited to be aggressive. When I read the article and saw some the films that they used for their results, it would seem like a obvious choice to say that Angelina Jolie is a better fit rather than Kathy Bates because of physical appearance, but till this day does beauty reign of intelligence, or overall cognitive knowledge?

References:

Setters, Tiffany. Taylor, Laramie D. "Watching Aggressive, Attractive, Female Protagonists Shapes Gender Roles for Women Among Male and Female Undergraduate Viewers". Sex Roles. 2011. Vol 65. P35-46.

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Welcome

Hola! Welcome to my blog fellow classmates. This blog will discuss stereotypes of women and their gender roles under a modern, traditional perspective or both. Throughout the blog, media and peer-reviewed articles will support and/or refute views about the roles of women.


The war of equality has been fought for years and concrete views of what a woman should be have been manipulated and misconstrued. Some bloodshed, definite tears and sweat, constant research and education has contributed to this topic. Throughout my years of habituating on earth, I lived to see how men perceive women, how women perceive other women and what traits they think should confine them to their roles. For example, a women who is educated should always pursue her goals of career first and family second. Not true in my opinion, but strong, career-minded and goal-oriented women would push forth to work harder on their career rather than settle for entry-level positions and seek love and family immediately.


Yes, women do want to be housewives, but revolutionary times and pioneers have strike hard to make that an option rather an obligation.