Daughters, Decisions and Domination: An Empirical and Conceptual Critique of Household Strategies

Abstract

This article focuses upon the decision‐making process in the household with regard to young women and factory employment in Java and Taiwan, and critically examines to what extent these processes reflect household strategies. While Javanese daughters may seek factory employment against parents' wishes, Taiwanese daughters may be obliged to submit to parental decisions and work for years in order to contribute income. The concept of ‘household strategies’, however, inadequately describes both situations, masking relations of power, resistance and inequality within the household. The assumptions underlying the concept of household strategies and their broader analytical implications are explored, leading to the conclusion that a more differentiated view of the household is needed, taking power relations and struggles between genders and generations into account.

L'émergence d'une migration féminine autonome du milieu rural vers le milieu urbain au Burkina FASO ?

“…En fait, le concept de "stratégie des ménages" a été vivement critiqué car il suppose l'existence d'un consensus entre les membres du ménage (Folbre, 1987 ;Crow, 1989 ;Wolf, 1990 ;Moen et Wethington, 1992). Or, les stratégies des uns peuvent entrer en conflit avec les stratégies des autres.…”

Authoritarianism, Democracy, and Adjustment: The Politics of Economic Reform in Africa

“…She asserts that unwarranted assumptions about individuals and households often lead to a misrepresentation of intra-household behaviour, and the distortion of stratifications based on gender and generation. Contrary to most "survival strategies" analysis, she conceptualises the household as both a cooperative and conflictual unit, within which the "survival" of some may be at the expense of others (Wolf, 1990). Considerations of issues of gender and generation are therefore important in uncovering the reality of the household and its "survival strategies".…”

Livelihood Change and Household Strategies: Social Displacement of the Upper Class in Dhading

“…Households such as these are found to be maintaining a low profile in the village and remaining mostly invisible in the community. Hence, feminists' insistence that the study of household strategy needs a gendered analysis appears to be relevant here (Wong, 1984;Folbre, 1986;Mallon, 1986;Bonney, 1988;Kandiyoti, 1988;Agarwal, 1997;Laurie, 1997;Wolf ,1997).…”

“…Feminist critique such as this refers to the conflation of individual household members with the household itself, thus ignoring intra-household inequalities in household decision. Wolf argues that "for a household strategy to be created, a decision must be made (Wolf , 1997). Crow (1989) makes the point clear when he says the idea of strategy is not to build on the assumption of consensus within households, but to acknowledge that different strategies may stem from different household members, who may or may not be in conflict and that there is always a space for negotiation, an intra-household dynamic which Sen calls "cooperative conflict" (1990, p. 125).…”