What's Love Got To Do With It? Equality, Equity,Commitment and Women's Marital Quality
Abstract
The companionate theory of marriage suggests that egalitarianism in practice and belief leads to higher marital quality for
wives and higher levels of positive emotion work on the part of husbands. Our analysis of women's marital quality and men's
marital emotion work provides little evidence in support of this theory. Rather, in examining women's marital quality and
men's emotional investments in marriage, we find that dyadic commitment to institutional ideals about marriage and women's
contentment with the division of household tasks are more critical. We also show that men's marital emotion work is a very
important determinant of women's marital quality. We conclude by noting that “her” marriage is happiest when it combines elements
of the new and old: that is, gender equity and normative commitment to the institution of marriage.
- CitationsCitations122
- ReferencesReferences58
- "Additionally, a lower BMI increased the likelihood of being satisfied with one's body that in turn increased sexual satisfaction. That perceived intimacy with partner was associated with sexual satisfaction confirms the results from previous studies in women (Basson 2000Basson , 2002Basson , 2005 Basson et al., 2003 Basson et al., , 2004 Carpenter, Nathanson, & Kim, 2009; Grau & Kimpf, 1993; Heiman et al., 2011; Wilcox & Nock, 2006) as well as in men (Traeen, 2008; Traeen et al., 2013). This indicates that sexual satisfaction is likely to stem from feeling acceptance and emotional intimacy with the partner in both men and women. "
[Show abstract] [Hide abstract] ABSTRACT: Objective: To study the relationship between age, gender, body mass index (BMI), body image, and perceived intimacy with partner and sexual satisfaction in young Norwegian adults. Methods: A questionnaire survey was completed online by 27.2% (n = 568) of a representative national web sample of 2,090 persons aged 18–29 years. Results: Women were more dissatisfied with their body than men and BMI increased with age. A negative body image correlated with BMI, particularly among women. There was no gender difference in reported sexual satisfaction and perceived intimacy with partner. The most important direct path leading to increased sexual satisfaction was from perceived intimacy with partner, followed by body image and age. By influencing body image, BMI, and gender influenced sexual satisfaction indirectly. Being male increased the likelihood of having a positive body image, which in turn increased the likelihood of reporting being sexually satisfied. Additionally, a lower BMI increased the likelihood of being satisfied with one's body, which in turn increased sexual satisfaction. Conclusion: Body image is clearly related to sexual satisfaction, particularly in women. However, body image is not associated with the perception of intimacy with one's partner, which is the most important factor for feeling sexually satisfied.- "Gender traditionalists who are less religious or irreligious report experiencing lower relationship satisfaction, whereas gender traditionalists who are more religious do not tend to experience lower relationship satisfaction (see Figure 1). This would affirm earlier research suggesting that gender traditionalism relates to committed-relationship quality within a context of other cultural and ideological norms and expectations (Wilcox and Nock 2006). However, these findings are also dependent on gender. "
[Show abstract] [Hide abstract] ABSTRACT: Despite the growing literature focusing on the ways gender ideology influences heterosexual relationship outcomes, few of these studies have considered the moderating role of religion. Drawing on a national random sample of American adults who report being married or living as married we focus on relationship satisfaction. Specifically, we examine the extent to which religious commitment moderates the link between gender ideology and reported relationship satisfaction and whether this moderating effect varies across gender. In the main effects, gender traditionalism is negatively associated with relationship satisfaction. However, interaction effects reveal that religious commitment moderates the effects of gender ideology such that the negative effects of gender traditionalism on relationship satisfaction only apply to those who are less religious. Gender traditionalism, by contrast, is not negatively related to relationship satisfaction for the highly-religious. Splitting the sample by gender reveals that this moderating relationship is only significant for women. Thus, while gender traditionalism, in the main, is negatively related to relationship satisfaction, this effect is contingent on both gender and religious commitment. Religious commitment, for various reasons we discuss, appears to mitigate negative effects of gender traditionalism on relationship outcomes, and particularly for American women.- "Research on the link between marital equality, satisfaction, and stability is also mixed, which has significant implications for whether promoting or challenging gender differences within marriage supports the goal of healthy marriage policy to promote happy, long-term unions. Some studies find that women who hold more traditional ideas about gender have happier marriages (Wilcox and Nock 2006 ). Others, however, find that this is likely because holding more egalitarian views of marriage sensitizes women to unfair distributions of household labor (Wilkie, Ferree, and Ratcliff 1998). "
[Show abstract] [Hide abstract] ABSTRACT: In 2002, the United States federal government created the Healthy Marriage Initiative, a policy that has distributed almost $1 billion in welfare money to marriage education programs. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in classes for a purposive sample of 20 government-approved marriage education programs and textual analysis of more than 3,000 pages of curricular materials, I analyze how U.S. healthy marriage policy addresses issues of gendered communication and power. This case reveals the limitations of what I call ‘‘interpersonal gender interventions,’’ which obscure how gendered ideologies and inequalities are often maintained through institutionalized practices and state action. Specifically, I argue that by focusing on negotiation, communication, and conflict-resolution strategies—or what marriage educators call “relationship skills”—at the interactional level, state-sponsored marriage education masks persistent institutionalized gender inequalities, namely, latent and hidden forms of marital power. More broadly, I use this case to reveal how interpersonal gender interventions will likely have limited utility if individuals learn to develop more gender-egalitarian beliefs in the absence of institutional changes that enable them to act on these values.
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