For Women, Breadwinning Can Be Dangerous: Gendered Resource Theory and Wife Abuse

Abstract

To explain wife abuse, we offer a refinement of relative resource theory, gendered resource theory, which argues that the effect of relative resources is contingent upon husbands' gender ideologies. We use data from the first wave of the National Survey of Families and Households (N ¼ 4,296) to test three theories of wife abuse. Resource theory receives no support. Relative resource theory receives limited support. Gendered resource theory receives strong support. Wives' share of relative incomes is positively related to likelihood of abuse only for traditional husbands. The findings suggest that both cultural and structural forces must be considered to understand marriage as a context for social interactions in which we create our gendered selves.Marriage is often a structural context of opportunity for husbands and wives to behave in ways that validate their identities as male and female, that is, to display the visible aspects of their gender ideologies. Studies of wife abuse have tended to partition structure and culture. This article examines the intersection of the two and argues that the culture moderates the effect of structure.Two social structural perspectives commonly used to explain wife abuse are resource theory and relative resource theory. These theories suggest that level of resources is the primary predictor of wife abuse. Specifically, they argue that married men who have few resources to offer (resource theory), or fewer resources than their wives (relative resource theory), are more likely than their resource-rich counterparts to use violence. Violence serves as a compensation for their shortage of resources. These theories have received support in a plethora of studies (Anderson, 1997;Hotaling & Sugarman, 1986;McCloskey, 1996). These structural explanations ignore cultural variables, however, and take for granted that married men want to be breadwinners, particularly in comparison to their wives. In other words, rather than accurately reflecting the variability in men's gender ideologies, such arguments assume all men to be traditional.In this study, we show the importance of gender ideology in understanding wife abuse by making the link between resources and ideology more explicit. We review resource theory and relative resource theory and their predictions concerning the occurrence of wife abuse. We then test both of these theories' predictions against our own gendered resource theory, which argues that the effect of relative resources on the occurrence of wife abuse is moderated by husbands' gender ideologies. That is, we show how structure and culture interact to

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“…Similarly, researchers may focus on the stereotypes of man and manhood issues (Vandello and Bosson 2013 [the USA]) to understand and solve the strongly justified gender-roles system. In that manner, examining the precarious social structure of manhood may highlight why some men are so prone to percieve women's involvement in social and work life as a threat (Atkinson et al 2005 [the USA]; Netchaeva et al 2015 [Italy]). Further, Flood (2015) argues that understandings of men and masculities is beneficial to decrease violence against women.…”

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“…In other words, rather than accurately reflecting the variability in men's gender ideologies, such arguments assume all men to be traditional. (Lang, et al, 2005).…”

“…Specifically, they argue that married men who have few resources to offer (resource theory), or fewer resources than wives (relative resource theory), are more likely than their resource-rich counterparts to use violence. (Lang, et al, 2005) Violence serves as a compensation for their shortage of resources. These theories have received support in the plethora of studies (Anderson, 1997); (Hotaling.G.T., 1986); (McCloskey, 1996).…”