Gender, Marital Power, and Marital Quality in Later Life

Abstract

This study uses data from the 1992 Health and Retirement Study to examine gender differences in marital power and marital quality among older adults and to assess whether there are gender differences in the correlates of marital quality and marital power in later life. Results show that women report lower marital happiness, marital interaction, and marital power than do men, on average. These differences persist even after controlling for a number of life-course events and transitions. Further, results show that gender differences are also evident in the relationship of employment, childrearing, caregiving, and health factors with marital quality and power.

Keywords:

• marital power
• marital quality
• gender
• marriage

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, August 2007, New York, NY. The author thanks Susan L. Brown, Gary Lee, Laura Sanchez, Jean Gerard, and Zhenmei Zhang for helpful feedback on earlier versions of this article.

Notes

1. Respondents between the ages of 51 and 61 were initially selected for the survey, but their married and cohabiting partners also became separate respondents in the study. Therefore, the HRS includes a number of respondents outside the 51–61 age group.

2. Separate models were first examined (results not shown) in which sociodemographic factors, economics and employment, childrearing and caregiving, and health variables were added in separate blocks. However, because variables operated similarly to the full model, only the full model is shown in the tables.