Development and Marital Power in Mexico

Abstract

Using information on spousal violence and decision making from a recent survey, this research addresses two issues pertaining to marital power in Mexican families. The first issue is the accuracy of various portraits of marital power. The results show that wives face diverse circumstances. Husband dominance is neither universal nor insurmountable. The second issue is whether marital power is associated with processes specified in the modernization or marginalization perspectives on the consequences of development. Consistent with the modernization perspective, educational attainment is a key variable affecting wives' exposure to domestic violence, likelihood of having an equal say in decisions, and satisfaction with influence in decisions. The results also suggest that economic opportunities per se are overemphasized in both perspectives. Over the last several decades, the interconnections among economic change, social change, and the status of women in developing societies have received considerable attention in the social sciences. This attention has crystallized around two alternative theoretical perspectives. The modernization perspective suggests that ideational and structural changes that accompany development enhance the status of women. The expansion of the infrastructures of mass communication, education, economics, and health care elevates the position of women within families by increasing their access to various resources. Increased access to resources erodes both the desire and the incentive to maintain patterns of family organization that limit the ability of women to adopt nontraditional roles. In contrast, the marginalization perspective suggests that developmentrelated processes marginalize women by diminishing their productive roles. Women are relegated to the margins of production by the mechanization of