Redundancy and Patterns of Household Finance

This paper examines the nature and implications of different patterns of income flow within households in the critical situation of redundancy for the male main earner. In a sample of forty households a number of different patterns of resource allocation were found, and may be divided into four general types: one based on female control, two on male control, and one on dual control. A normative tendency to attach priority to items of collective household expenditure was detected, together with a division of labour which left the woman largely responsible for domestic affairs. I argue that given these circumstances, the lower the household income, the greater the need for unitary control, and the greater the likelihood that this control will be exercised by the woman. The paper goes on to examine the implications of the different patterns of income flow for marital relations, outlining the way in which the renegotiation of personal and domestic needs will have implications for, and also be influenced by, the nature of the marital relationship, the degree of both spouses' involvement in extra-household networks, the characteristics of these networks, and the resources which they make available.