The Interplay of Economic Resources, Family Decision Power, and Gender Ideology in China

Gender ideology, the support for a gendered division of paid work and family responsibilities, is a crucial ideological indicator in investigating gender qualities at the couple level. In contrast, economic dependence measures the actual income disparities at the couple level. The two concepts are intertwined with and mutually reinforce each other within marriage. In this study, we propose a mechanism where intra-family decision power interacts with economic dependence to shape gender ideologies and empirically examine it in China. Drawing on data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), our analysis suggests that married women in dual-earner families who adhere to traditional gender ideologies are more likely to be economically dependent on their husbands. On the other side of the loop, a woman's economic dependence interacts with her intra-family decision power to shape her gender ideology. Intra-family decision power moderates the relationship between economic dependence and gender ideologies so that wives with relatively high economic independence and decision power hold the least traditional gender ideologies, while those with high economic dependence and decision power exhibit the most traditional gender ideologies. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for gender disparities in the division of labor and the development of gender ideologies.