Abstract
It is commonly thought that the generation of women who have entered the labour force since the 1970s no longer need social protection as their husbands’ dependants. Indeed, equality between men and women in the labour force and the recognition of women as individuals in their own right and not as the dependants of men is increasingly accepted as a desirable aim. Indeed, this philosophy underlies the European Directive 79/7 on the Equal Treatment for Men and Women in Matters of Social Security. However, although improved opportunities have given some women greater economic independence this does not apply in full to all women. Therefore it is important to establish how many women are financially dependent on their partners and the extent of this dependency. This chapter sets out to do this for a generation of women leaving school and entering the labour market in the mid-1970s.
Liffey opened the letter and understood that she was no longer rich, that she was to live as the rest of the world did, unprotected from financial disaster; that she was pregnant and dependent upon a husband, and that her survival, or so it seemed, was bound up with her pleasing of him. That she was not, as she had thought, a free spirit, and nor was he: that they were bound together by necessity. That he could come and go as he pleased; love her, leave her as he pleased; and that domestic power is to do with economics. And that Richard, by virtue of being powerful, being also good, would no doubt look after her and her child, and not insist upon doing so solely upon his terms. But he could and he might: so Liffey had better behave, charm, lure, love and render herself necessary by means of the sexual and caring comfort she provided.
Fay Weldon, Puffball (1984)
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© 1996 British Sociological Association
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Ward, C., Dale, A., Joshi, H. (1996). Income Dependency within Couples. In: Morris, L., Lyon, E.S. (eds) Gender Relations in Public and Private. Explorations in Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24543-7_6
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