From ‘Rotten Wives’ to ‘Good Mothers’:Household Models and the Limits of Economism

Summaries This article encompasses a critical review of new collective models of the household, together with a discussion of gender power and its key implications. These include understanding ‘the household’ as a political arena; how intra?household negotiations are simultaneously material and discursive; how they both reflect and alter the ways women and men are engaged in other arenas; and the importance of gender as a constitutive force shaping economic processes.