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Marriage

An Unequal Partnership

  • Chapter
Handbook of Family and Marital Therapy

Abstract

Two decades ago, Blood and Wolfe (1960), in a singularly influential study of 731 urban and suburban wives and 178 farm wives, concluded that “the average Detroit marriage is properly labeled equalitarian” (p. 23). Further, they asserted, “the American family has changed its authority pattern from one of patriarchal male dominance to one of equalitarian sharing” (p. 47). It is the contention of this chapter that the assertion of equality as the normative condition in American marriage relationships not only was unwarranted at the time but continues as an unwarranted assertion in the eighties. Neither Blood and Wolfe’s own data nor that from subsequent investigations supports the conclusion of equality.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University, Garden City, New York, 11530, USA

    Janice M. Steil

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  1. Janice M. Steil
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. International Encyclopedia of Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychoanalysis, and Neurology, 10 West 66th Street Suite 6D, New York, New York, USA

    Benjamin B. Wolman Ph.D.

  2. Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University, Garden City, New York, USA

    George Stricker Ph.D.  & Joseph W. Newirth Ph.D.  & 

  3. School of Professional Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Harl H. Young

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© 1983 Plenum Press, New York

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Steil, J.M. (1983). Marriage. In: Wolman, B.B., Stricker, G., Framo, J., Newirth, J.W., Rosenbaum, M., Young, H.H. (eds) Handbook of Family and Marital Therapy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4442-1_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4442-1_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-4444-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-4442-1

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