Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:44:41.023Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Behind Closed Doors: Older Couples and the Gendered Management of Household Money

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2012

Dinah Bisdee ,
Tom Daly  and
Debora Price
Dinah Bisdee
Affiliation:
Institute of Gerontology, King's College London E-mail: [email protected]
Tom Daly
Affiliation:
Institute of Gerontology, King's College London E-mail: [email protected]
Debora Price
Affiliation:
Institute of Gerontology, King's College London E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

As couples survive longer and live together into older age they face many issues of financial management, including daily money management on reduced and/or reducing income, and paying for care or the additional costs of disability. Yet household money management is highly gendered, especially for older age groups. This has implications for the ability of women, particularly, to manage financial decisions in the face of their partner's illness, or widowhood, as well as for their autonomy and well-being. We analyse in depth qualitative data from forty-five older couples across the socio-economic spectrum to show that women have varying emotional responses to money management in coupledom: ‘accepters’ who accept financial inequality and dominance by their husbands, ‘resenters’ who recognise these inequalities but resent them, and ‘modifiers/resisters’ who retain financial independence and power within their relationships. It is only the latter group, who have long histories of financial control and management, who are well placed for financial management and decisions in later life. By recognising the implications of different types of couple relationship, policies can be better designed to assist those navigating money in later life.

Keywords

Couplesmoneygenderlater lifeageing
Type
Themed Section on Rethinking Retirement Incomes: Inequality and Policy Change in the UK and Anglo Saxon Countries
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 163 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Belch, M. A. and Willis, L. A. (2002) ‘Family decision at the turn of the century: has the changing structure of households impacted the family decision-making process?’, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 2, 2, 111–24.Google Scholar
Charmaz, K. C. (2006) Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis, London: Sage.Google Scholar
FELICIE (Future Elderly Living Conditions In Europe) (2006) ‘Who will care for the oldest old in the next 30 years in Europe?’, http://www.felicie.org/ASP/keyr.asp?lang=EN [accessed 15.02.2011].Google Scholar
Ginn, J. and Arber, S. (2001) ‘Pension prospects of minority ethnic groups: inequalities by gender and ethnicity’, British Journal of Sociology, 52, 3, 519–39.Google Scholar
Holdsworth, C. and Dale, A. (1997) ‘Ethnic differences in women's employment’, Work, Employment and Society, 11, 3, 435–57.Google Scholar
Howcroft, B., Hewer, P. and Hamilton, R. (2003) ‘Consumer decision-making styles and the purchase of financial services’, The Service Industries Journal, 23, 5, 63–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Office for National Statistics (2011a) UK Interim Life Tables, 1980–82 to 2008–10, Newport: Office for National Statistics, http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lifetables/interim-life-tables/2008-2010/rft-ilt-uk-2008-2010.xls.Google Scholar
Office for National Statistics (2011b) ‘Life expectancy at age 65 (years): by sex, United Kingdom, 2000–2002 to 2008–2010’, http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/subnational-health4/life-expec-at-birth-age-65/2004-06-to-2008-10/ref-results-for-the-uk.xls [accessed 08.04.2012].Google Scholar
Pahl, J. (1989) Money and Marriage, Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Pahl, J. (2000) ‘The gendering of spending within households’, Radical Statistics, Issue 75, http://www.radstats.org.uk/no075/pahl.htm [accessed 21.06.2010].Google Scholar
Vogler, C. and Pahl, J. (1993) ‘Social and economic change and the organisation of money within marriage’, Work, Employment and Society, 7, 1, 71–95.Google Scholar
Vogler, C., Brockmann, M. and Wiggins, R. D. (2006) ‘Intimate relationships and changing patterns of money management at the beginning of the 21st century’, British Journal of Sociology, 57, 3, 455–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willig, C. (2001) Introducing Qualitative Research in Psychology, Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Zweig, F. (1961) The Worker in an Affluent Society, London: Heinemann.Google Scholar