2.3 Households: power and inequality

Power and inequalities in households have an enormous impact on human wellbeing both in and outside the household. Power relationships inside households are shaped by the emotional bonds of care work, social norms, control over financial and other resources, education and employment, and access to support systems outside the household. These relationships also impact inequalities outside the household in the wider society and in global care chains. Researching households can help us understand household relationships, the factors that shape them and their implications for human wellbeing inside and outside the household.

At the end of Subtopic 2.3 Households: power and inequality, you should be able to:

• explain intrahousehold bargaining and its importance for gender equality and human wellbeing

• discuss the factors affecting an individual’s intrahousehold bargaining power

• explain the reinforcing feedback loop between gender inequalities within in the household and wider society

• discuss the various financial and political consequences of gendered household care roles

• explain the causes and consequences of global care chains

• explain the importance of researching households for designing regenerative economies

• describe various methods and instruments used to research households and outline their uses and limitations

• practice creating at least one instrument (survey, interview, observation, etc) that could be used to research households