Reshaping marital power: How dual-career newlywed couples create equality in Singapore

Abstract

Movement toward gender equality occurs in incremental steps, but how such change occurs has not been well studied. A qualitative analysis of 20 heterosexual Singaporean couples identified the processes that equalize power within couple relationships. Results reveal that (i) prioritizing women's careers encourages men to change role expectations, take on household tasks, value wives' contributions and emotionally attend to them, and encourages women to seek influence, and (ii) the shift toward equality occurs within a gender structure where men retain the ultimate choice regarding power shifts and wives find ways to influence them. Though the shifts are gradual and partial, they constitute potential recalibrations of institutional gender hierarchy as new expectations flow between couple relationships and the larger social arena.