Beyond Household Decision-Making: Agency, Relational Freedom and the Domestic Peace Deficit

Conventional approaches to women’s agency in domestic settings frequently equate the presence of preference, voice, or reported participation in household decisions with the existence of meaningful agency. This paper challenges that assumption. Drawing on the Domestic Peace Deficit (DPD) framework, it develops the Agency and Relational Peace Deficit as the second analytical pillar of the programme. The paper’s central theoretical contribution is the Agency Ladder, a five-stage structure (Preference → Expression → Exercise → Meaningful Alternative → Freedom from Coercive Penalty) that identifies the distinct conditions through which a preference can be converted into consequential, penalty-free action. Agency deficit, the paper argues, does not begin only when choice disappears; it can emerge at any point where this conversion is systematically constrained. Building on the Ladder, the paper organises the resulting forms of deficit into five dimensions and extends the analysis into the relational domain through the concept of Relational Reciprocity Deficit. In doing so, it moves beyond conventional household decision-making indicators to examine the quality, consequences, and conditions of agency and relational freedom within domestic life. The paper situates this contribution within the broader DPD architecture, clarifying its relationship to the Violence and Coercion Deficit and the Institutional and Structural Support Deficit, while maintaining clear conceptual boundaries between the three pillars.