Gender and Power in Family Theories

Abstract

This paper intends to evaluate the contemporary family study frameworks from the standpoint of women's status and power and to identify the needed direction of the future family studies.The overriding perspective in family studies have been challenged by at least two streams. The first one is related to the changing situations of women and family in the real world. The challenge to family theories based on the assumption that the family is the women's world comes from the societal change which does no longer support the assumptions of “family as a group” and the two-parenthood. The increase in the married-women's participation in the labor market and in divorce rate seems to have contributed most to such a change. Another challenge comes from feminist theories. They view the interplay of patriarchy and capitalism as the basic source of structured male control over female. The notion that the modern conjugal family is egalitarian which is free of the patriarchal domination is challenged.Some theories of family change with cross-cultural comparative perspectives and resource/exchange theories using the notions of resources and legitimacy contribute to the analysis of the conjugal power relations in the context of the individualization of the family. Together with the interest in social equality, longitudinal approaches are essential to the understanding of the present time.