THE SUBMISSIVE WIFE

Abstract

In a local study done by Aline Wong ( 1979) on the implications of maternal employment and educational attainment on women's household decision-making power, the findings reveal that "the wife's education has been treated as a power resource in family decision-making" and that "the more highly educated the wife is, the more egalitarian is the pattern of decision-making". Also, "education enables a woman to be gainfully employed at relatively high wages, therefore a greater amount of economic independence brings about a greater say" (all above quotes from 1979:43). Unfortunately, in the process of my research, no other contemporary data or research that is more up to date could be located. Thus, one of the aims of my study is to examine if the findings of Wong ( 1979) are still relevant or true today. Indeed, as stated by Blood & Wolfe (1960: 10-11 ): "The social structure of a family consists of the positions which the members occupy in relation to each other. The most important aspect of the family structure is the power positions of the members. Power may be divided equally between the husband and wife or wielded predominantly by one partner over the other. Traditionally, it has been the husband over the wife .... ". As such, power should not be seen as inherent in a person, be it the husband or the wife, but inherent in the power positions they occupy in relation to each other. The relative power each position yields is culturally-defined. That power is operationalised into decision-making power (Blood & Wolfe, 1960: 19). As such, the spouse who has more power is simply the one who makes the most, or at least more, of the decisions.