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Using Gendered Discourses in Negotiations: Couples and the Onset of Disablement in Marriage

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Gender, Power and the Household

Abstract

Much of the recent social science literature on households has emphasized the way in which the distribution of resources and behaviours between individuals within those households is contested (Seymour, 1992a; Brannen and Wilson, 1987; Duck, 1983; Duck, 1986; Duncombe and Marsden, 1993). Many research perspectives no longer view household members simply as constituting a unit, but consider how people respond as discrete actors within that unit. From these perspectives, household activities and processes such as the division of domestic labour are examined as actions through which participants reveal the operation of power relations within the household (Berk, 1985; Mason, 1989; Seymour, 1992b). While numerous studies have focused on the operation of gender relations between heterosexual couples (but see Blumstein and Schwartz, 1983; Dunne, 1996 for a discussion of gay and lesbian households), other researchers have considered alternative forms of power relations, for example those based on age, and taken an inter-generational viewpoint (Morrow, 1996).

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Authors
  1. Julie Seymour
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Aberdeen, UK

    Linda McKie (Senior Lecturer in Health Education) (Senior Lecturer in Health Education)

  2. University of Reading, UK

    Sophia Bowlby (Senior Lecturer in Geography) (Senior Lecturer in Geography)

  3. University of Surrey, UK

    Susan Gregory (Doctoral Student) (Doctoral Student)

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© 1999 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc.

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Seymour, J. (1999). Using Gendered Discourses in Negotiations: Couples and the Onset of Disablement in Marriage. In: McKie, L., Bowlby, S., Gregory, S., Campling, J. (eds) Gender, Power and the Household. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230376632_5

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