Rethinking Family Power

The family power literature, in its macro-level focus on marital decision making, has emphasized the kind of family power that is generally conferred on men and is based on extrafamilial roles and performance. Women, by virtue of their intrafamilial roles as kinkeepers and nurturers, are more deeply, extensively, and enduringly embedded in the family; yet the power that accrues to them as the lynchpins of family cohesion and socialization has received little attention. A micro-level analysis of family power reveals that women's positions in the family power structure rest not on the horizontal marital tie but rather are derived from the more complex, significant, and dynamic power of the intergenerational bond.