Resource Factors, Cultural Norms And Marital Power In Urban And Rural Families

Family is an important perspective of female status and the promotion of women’s domestic status is a core problem and an important content of gender equality. At present, not only is there imbalance in economic and social development level between urban and rural areas in China, but also family patterns and cultural norms showed a significant difference. The corporate model of rural households indicates its economic functions and collectivization characteristics. However, the economic function of urban households was replaced by the labor market, and its emotional characteristics were highlighted gradually. Therefore, it is worthwhile to discuss the impact of differences in economic and social development, family patterns and cultural context between urban and rural areas on women’s domestic status. And it is very meaningful we focus the study on marital power in the context of family structure miniaturization and the couple axis to replace the parent-child axis. On the one hand, we can know the relative position of wife in the conjugal power structure in rural and urban families; on the other hand, we can understand how the different socio-economic development and cultural norms between urban and rural areas affect the marital power patterns.Resource theory and cultural norms theory are the main theoretical perspectives of Western conjugal power study, the former claims that the comparative resources of the husband and wife are the chief determinants of the conjugal balance of power, while the latter maintains that wives have less family decision-making power due to the persistence of Patriarchal culture. Based on the data of the third women’s social status investigation in Jiangsu Province and used the method of ordinal logistic regression analysis, this paper examines the differences of marital power structure in urban and rural families. Further attempt is made to analyze how the resource factors and cultural norms served as the framework shape the conjugal power patterns of the urban and rural areas. Besides, modernization and marginalization theory are also examined in the paper in terms of their relevance to our findings.Results indicate that marital power shows difference statistically between urban and rural families:urban families tend to couple sharing power patterns, and rural families still retain the characteristics of husband-dominance. Resource factors and cultural contexts account for the marital power pattern of urban areas, while the traditional patriarchal culture is the main determinant of rural families’ marital power mode. Hence, from the findings it is concluded that the resource theory is applicable in urban households and the gender role attitude individual holds also has a significant effect on marital power relations. However, the results show no relations between resources and marital power patterns in rural families, which also confirm the applicability of the norm-resource framework for the marital power structure in urban and rural families.As for modernization and marginalization theory, women in urban families strengthen their resources through higher education and paid-stable work. The cultural norms from traditional to egalitarian also contribute the joint pattern of marital power in urban households. In rural families, economic functions and collectivization are still the main characteristics, women served as a partner of family business are in a subordinate position and the traditional cultural norms also make the husbands-dominance pattern of marital power.As a result, the analyses of conjugal power structure support that modernization theory is probably more applicable in Chinese setting.