Undue Influence

Abstract

Marguerite is petite and skinny with an open and joyful face. She is 90 years old and is never short of something to say. She retired from her job as a primary school teacher some 30 years ago and is interested in everything including politics. She is a strong woman and is just as demanding as she is intransigent. Listening to her talk about her life, it becomes clear that she was always politically engaged, always involved, and always ruled the roost with respect to her husband and three children. She is what some might call a matriarch: she always spoke the loudest and she almost always won the argument imposing her point of view on her family. She is on the left politically. Her husband, who was a gym teacher and whom she describes as conservative, simply followed along. Agreement presided over the family. This is a type of agreement that merits further investigation and particularly into what is hidden behind it.