Emotion and Interest in Marriage and Domestic Power: Some Results of a Research in Portugal

Having as a framework the reality of household and family relations, this paper focus on the marriage as part and as strategy in the process of reproduction and eventual social mobility. In marriage, to a greater or lesser degree or in a more latent or manifest manner, two elements have been present in various types of societies: emotion and interest. Connected is another phenomenon that is even less openly recognized than the emotion-interest binomial: domestic power. This has been increasingly institutionalized over time and subject to the norms and prescriptions of the moral, religious and/ or state order.

This presentation is based on the project “Gender Inequalities: between the laws and social practices”, which considered for analysis both a survey with 800 people, from rural and urban areas, and with diverse age groups, education levels and occupations, and 20 semi-structured interviews, in the Portuguese context. After a brief initial reflection on marriage and its components – emotion and interest – the motivations and the resources, the importance attached, then domestic power will be subject of analysis based on data collected. It will be revealed the marriage property regime, the value of the spouses before marriage’s assets, the division on decision’s making by sex on certain matters (e.g. children's activity, purchase of home or car, place of vacation), the organization of money, types of relationships with the spouse, forms of communication and types of initiatives by sex. Finally, some conclusions will be presented in the light of the mentioned problem.