More women now holding the purse strings

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32612, 21 May 1971, Page 5

More women now holding the purse strings

(By

SUSAN ROGERS)

The popularity of trousers and the craze for short shorts in place of the mini-skirt are not the only signs these days that women are wearing the pants.

The latest sociological surveys are clearly showing that we girls are also truly in command when it comes Ito managing our homes and balancing the family budget. And far from fighting to keep their traditional place at the head of the household, husbands are apparently only too glad to hand over the responsibility of home management to their wives.

The most recent poll, conducted by the fifth largest of London’s clearing banks, would seem to confirm that what other surveys have been hinting for some time is true after all—that while a husband may be the breadwinner, his only major financial decision now is where to go on holiday. Among the bank’s findings into modern-day attitudes toward saving and domestic spending, are that wives are taking a bigger decisionmaking role over buying a new family car and taking more responsibility for the clothes the family wear. It also shows that they pay the bills, and, what is more pay, them far more promptly than men ever used to. They are reluctant, too, to use hire purchase or

f ; borrow from the bank. Even , the buying of major items ' such as furniture and carpets - and the planning of colour t schemes in redecorating j programmes—both were virr tuaUy the exclusive preserve ’of the male just 15 years ago—are now decided

[jointly. How has the revolution ! come about? An influential ' human relations organisation i has no doubts. I SHARING “Unlike previous generai tions,” says the Childbirth s Trust, “today’s young ■ marrieds seem to want to : experience every aspect of i their marriage together. ’ Never before has this urge ! ■ to share everything been so ■ marked.”

It is as a result of this that : a woman’s role has assumed ; much greater importance and responsibility in the home ! and more husbands than i ever before are lending a . helping hand with the sort of household chores that once they would never have , dreamed of doing. Now, in the majority of households women have all ; but taken over control of the ; family purse, and the wives have literally become masters in the home. A London psychologist and marriage-counsellor, Dr Samuel Levine, says: “The control of the family purse has become a symbol of the control of a marriage. “Today, money is the motivating force. Couples seem to feel that whoever controls the money effective-

ly controls the household, too.”

It is perhaps not hard to see why women are taking over the responsibility of balancing the family budget. Most women, several studies have shown, have bitterly resented men’s strangely casual attitude to money. HAPPY Now. though, with money increasingly difficult to come by, husbands it seems, are becoming more cash conscious than ever before and happily letting their wives look after the home’s financial affairs—even to the extent of paying the bills. This was borne out recently in a study by sociologists at London’s Belmont Institute. Of the 130 husbands questioned, 55 claimed their wives kept all the domestic accounts and paid all the bills other than those dealt with automatically by banker's order. Research also showed that more than 60 of the husbands left the decision of the household’s financial priorities to their wives. And while the wives were hiding themselves away to balance the books at the end of each week, the husbands, far from enjoying a night out with the boys or settling down to watch television, were probably looking after the children.

Studies carried out in the last five years by family research experts on both sides of the Atlantic have revealed that today’s fathers spend nearly 40 per cent more of their spare time with

their children than their fathers did.

Indeed, in a big survey conducted by a London child psychologist. Dr Gavin Beaumont, three years ago, it was found that fathers were actually going out of their way to find time to look after their children.

Of the fathers interviewed with children under five years of age, 52 per cent had given up or cut down the number of hours they spent on their hobbies in order to take the children off their wives’ hands at week-ends. “SOFTENING”

Certainly, there is little doubt that there has been a dramatic “softening” of male attitudes towards women. Today, a husband will do the washing-up and the occasional clearing-up and housework, and even cook the Sunday lunch. And if that gives the impression that a husband’s influence in the home is on the decline, that is precisely what appears to be happening. In the course of her research Dr Cynthia Broughton, author of a recent book on family relations, discovered that the father was still the dominating influence in the disciplinary life of the household in only 36 per cent of the families she interviewed.

Could it be, I wonder, that today’s fashion trends of trousers and hot pants are a reflection of woman’s increasing responsibility in the home? Features International.