Marriage, Feminism, Money and Contraception

Abstract

Marriage is a central institution in our society but it is seen as a site of patriarchal oppression by some feminists, especially radical ones. Violence, exploitation and oppression are often experienced by women within marriage to a greater or lesser degree. The Christian church places great importance on the marriage relationship. In evangelical circles the family ideal is often upheld and idealised. Wives are meant to submit to and serve their husbands. A man is to love his wife as Christ loves the church. In this section I want to explore the ideals that the clergy and women hold on Christian marriage. I ask about their views on marriage, what the features of a Christian marriage would be, and what would differentiate it from a non-Christian marriage. On asking this latter question, many of the clergy were quite taken aback and had to take time to think about it, which was rather surprising and alarming considering that an important part of a minister’s job is to give pre-marital guidance and perform marriage ceremonies. The women in the church seem to be much clearer about their ideals. Feminism attempts to promote the equal value of women in society but many women perceive the movement in a negative light (Faludi 1992; French 1992; Percy 1994; Siann and Wilkinson 1994). In this study my aim is to explore the attitudes of women in the church and to test the hypothesis that religious women (evangelicals) maybe even more conservative than non-evangelicals on issues such as power in marriage relationships, who controls the money and who should take responsibility for contraception.KeywordsFeminist MovementMoney ManagementJoint AccountClass ProfessionalMarriage RelationshipThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.