Intergenerational power dynamics of women in extended households in India over two decades

This paper examines the intergenerational power dynamics between co-residing mothers-in-law (MILs) and daughters-in-law (DILs) in patrilocal families and investigates how these dynamics have evolved over time. While research on women's agency in the Global South often focuses on an individual woman's power relative to her husband, this study addresses the critical gap concerning the influence and mechanisms of MIL-DIL power relations. Analysing a sample of 5501 extended households (MIL-DIL pairs) from the India National Family Health Survey (1998–2015), we test the association of women's education, work, and men's migration with intergenerational power dynamics. The findings from multinominal logit models reveal a nuanced and delayed shift towards egalitarianism. Specifically, a DIL's higher education and work decrease the likelihood of being in a traditional MIL-dominant dynamics, but this effect is significant only in the most recent survey years. Men's absence consistently increases the chance of a traditional dynamics and does not facilitate egalitarian arrangements. Together, the paper demonstrates the persistence of hierarchical intergenerational relationships alongside a complex, time-dependent erosion of patriarchal familial norms.