Money, power and inequality among married couples in urban Sarawak

In accordance with United Nations’ sustainable development goal in achieving gender equality and to empower all women and girls, this paper investigates gender equality and power in marital relationship. Using Resource Theory of Power as a conceptual framework, this paper examines the distribution of marital power among married couples. More specifically, this paper examines to what extent do married couples use money as a bargaining tool to negotiate for more control in two areas: (1) managing economic resources and (2) household decision making. Forty married couples from urban Sarawak were located and interviewed. Results indicate that apart from money, marital power is affected by more influential factors such as ideologies and religious teachings. Consequently, having more money does not necessarily mean having more control over the decision making as decision making in a marriage is often guided by prescribed gender roles in accordance to one’s ideologies, cultural and religious teachings. Hence, gender equality in the management of economic resources and decision making within a household can only occur when an increase in women’s resources is combined with changes in gender roles and ideologies.

Marital Power Finally Obliterated: The History of the Abolition of the Marital Power in Civil Marriages in Eswatini

Women's subordination is not new in the world. As society became human rights conscious, many countries started abrogating or scrapping discriminatory laws and attitudes towards women, in particular married women. However, it has taken Eswatini more than 100 years to deal with the fact that the common law principle of marital power discriminates against women. This paper traces the reception of marital power into the legal framework of Eswatini and how advocacy groups on women's rights and freedoms have opposed women's subordination, fortified by research. This paper presents a desktop review of selected literature and case laws touching on women's emancipation in Eswatini. This research work is significant in that it adds to the body of knowledge by recording the origins of women's subjection to marital power and their eventual emancipation in the landmark case of Sacolo v Sacolo (1403/2016) [2019] SZHC 166 (30 August 2019).

PROBLEMATIKA ISBAT NIKAH DALAM OPTIK PERUNDANG-UNDANGAN

The marriage certificate is the process of recording marriage to a marriage that is carried out on a legal basis and has not been approved by the legality or marriage certificate of the marriage. The purpose of the marriage ratification is to obtain legal certainty that is appropriate to the marriage that has been done, namely by registering a marriage and obtaining a marriage certificate to facilitate the civil process in the family. This type of research is qualitative by discussing sociology and it was carried out using inductive analytical methods by discussing the issue of the implementation of marriage rights in the field and the implications of marriage rights to the status of marital power in terms of the system of agreement-invitation legislation. The results of this study are the implementation of the marriage certificate in the Jepara Religious Court has been carried out according to procedures that have been received and carried out by the Jepara Religious Court in accordance with the provisions of the procedural law of the religion in accordance with statutory provisions regulated by Law Number 50 Year 2009 concerning the Religious Courts.

Marital power and depressive symptoms among older Mexican adults

An extensive body of research documents marital status differences in health among older adults. However, few studies have investigated the heterogeneity in depressive symptomatology among older married adults living in developing countries. Our study investigates the interplay of gender and marital power dynamics for mental health among older Mexican adults. Our sample includes older married couples in the 2015 Wave of the Mexican Health and Aging Study (N = 3,621 dyads). We use seemingly unrelated regression to model the association between self-reported distributions of decision-making power within marriages and depressive symptoms for husbands and wives. For approximately 41 per cent of couples, the husband and wife both reported an equal distribution of power in the marriage. Compared to those who reported an equal power distribution, husbands and wives who reported an imbalance of power (having more power or less power than their spouse) reported more depressive symptoms. Levels of depressive symptoms were higher in marriages characterised by power inequality. The relationship between equality in power and depressive symptoms is not explained by health-care needs or living arrangements. Marital quality is an important factor for understanding depressive symptoms among older Mexican adults.

Women’s Fertility Autonomy in Urban China: The Role of Couple Dynamics Under the Universal Two-Child Policy

Under China’s universal two-child policy, decisions about whether to have a second birth become more dynamic, flexible, and subject to negotiation between the spouses; moreover, how women can maintain their fertility autonomy has far-reaching implications for gender equality. Using valuable, new data from the 2016 Survey of the Fertility Decision-Making Processes in Chinese Families, we examine the relationship between couple dynamics and women’s fertility autonomy in urban China. If women want no more than one child and already have one, intending to have a second birth indicates low fertility autonomy. Couple dynamics are measured by conjugal power structure and spousal pressure on fertility. We find that only if women have less marital power than their husbands, greater fertility pressure from husband is associated with a higher likelihood that women intend to have a second birth. In addition, when investigating the determinants of couple dynamics, we find that women’s marital power depends on their relative resources, whereas fertility pressure from husband persists regardless. The findings suggest that in post-reform urban China, growing gender inequalities in labor markets likely reduce women’s marital power, which in turn negatively affects their fertility autonomy. We urge greater research and policy attention to gender equality issues in the era of the universal two-child policy.