Beyond Resource Theory: Another Look at Factors Enabling Women to Affect Family Interaction

The study concerns the interaction of an equalitarian norm and the wife's contribution of resources with her ability to affect the decision-making and the division of labor in the families of recent Cuban immigrants. It is concluded that the wife's contribution of resources per se is not as important in determining interchange in the family as are the joint effects of resources of the dyad and the adherence of the couple to an equalitarian ideology. The study has implications forAmerican families and the current women's liberation movement as it points up the need to focus on sources of norms as influential factors in changing women's positions in the United States.