Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Director of the Department of Cultural Sociology; Institute for Culture, Art and Architecture (ICAS)

Abstract

This paper aims to achieve a deep understanding of women's described experience about the structure of the distribution of power in the family. The method of this research is qualitative. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews and analyzed by analysis of the life story. The study sample design is purposeful sampling and technique of sampling is theoretical saturation. Interviewees were 25 employed women and 25 unemployed women. Theoretical framework of this research is based on the theory of Blood and Wolfe, based on its assumptions, the division of power in the family and the stronghold of one of the spouses, is affected by the availability of resources and expectations of each of the normative value of women and husband; in other words, by more resources, each person will have more power.
The results of this research show that there are three patterns in their decision making: woman-dominant, man-dominant and agreement in two categories of families. Although employed women have more resource and money, they cannot be influential in the decision-makings. So both employed and unemployed women are dominant in micro and low-cost decisions and less effective in huge and high-cost decisions. Women in both groups against men's authoritarianism are mentioned flexibly and come short of their decision because of "saving their lives"

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