Blackwell Reference Online

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The equal sharing of financial resources and, hence, material well-being has become an assumed norm of contemporary heterosexual families. Of course, this is not to say that heterosexual couples actually enjoy financial equality or that they share a similar standard of living. In fact, as Pahl (1989) pointed out over 15 years ago, the failure to open up the black box of familial economies to sociological scrutiny has operated to disguise intrafamilial inequalities: amongst married couples these inequalities, as numerous studies have consistently demonstrated, possess a strongly gendered character. It is women and children who tend to be poor even when the households to which they belong are in receipt of adequate incomes. Sociologists, in taking heed of Pahl's call to investigate the money management practices of families, have paid attention to a number of different dimensions of domestic economies. Firstly, they have sought to discover the practices through which families combine, distribute, spend, and save their financial resources. Secondly, they have examined the effects of these practices on different family members in both financial and social terms. Thirdly, they have pointed out that variations in the use of particular financial systems are associated with differences of class, ethnicity, and family structure. Fourthly, they have recently begun to consider the role remittances ... log in or subscribe to read full text