Individualized Marriage and the Integration of Resources

In individualized marriages, spouses maintain independence in their relationship. In individualized marriages, do married couples manage their money in pooled accounts or do they keep separate accounts? We answer this question with the 2002 International Social Survey Programme (N = 18,587; 31 country contexts) and examine how variation in the individualization of marriage is related to variation in resource integration within marriage. We make two contributions. First, we found that individualization matters. When couples understood and practiced individualized marriage, they were more likely to keep their money separate. The presence of individualized approaches to marriage and individualized alternatives to marriage within a country were also related to a higher likelihood of couples keeping money separate. Second, we found that integrating resources remained a constitutive part of marriage. Despite trends toward individualization and growing alternatives to marriage, most married couples continued to pool their money. Key Words: individualization, marriage, money. Integrating resources has always been an integral part of marriage. Originally it was the sole purpose (Coontz, 2005). Marriage integrated the resources of two extended families, including land and political power. As the institution evolved, the focus of marriage turned to the couple, although integrating resources remained important. Legally and practically, two individuals became a single unit as couples moved into the same home, opened a joint bank account, filed taxes together, and had rights to half of all that was acquired throughout the marriage. Why does integrating resources figure so prominently in marriage? There are two complementary approaches to this question in the literature. Economic perspectives focus on the advantages in efficiency found in integrated arrangements (Treas, 1993). Institutional approaches suggest that strategies for managing resources will reflect institutional contexts (Zelizer, 1995). We integrate these approaches by considering recent discussions suggesting that marriage today is increasingly individualized (Amato, Booth, Johnson, & Rogers, 2007; Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2001; Cherlin, 2004, 2009; Giddens, 1992). These arguments propose that it is increasingly common for people to enter marriage solely for the love and intimacy found in the relationship. As long as love and intimacy last, couples remain together, and when those factors are no longer present, the relationship ends. In these fluid relationships, hallmarks such as specialization in tasks between spouses are expected to decrease as individuals place a premium on their ability to care and provide economically for themselves without dependence on the other. Spouses maintain their individual identities and independence in the context of their relationships. Furthermore, individuals today are able to live alone, delay marriage, or have families, including intimate relationships and raising children, without marriage (Teachman, Tedrow, & Crowder, 2000; Thornton, Axinn, & Xie, 2007). Is the individualization of marriage changing the way money is managed in marriage? We consider this question using the 2002 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) Family and Changing Gender Roles module. The data include information concerning family characteristics across 3 1 country contexts, allowing us to examine the prevalence of individualized marriage patterns cross-nationally. If relationships are becoming more individualized, we should expect individuals within couples to keep and manage their own money, allowing for increased independence and ease of ending relationships. The analysis allows us to examine the prevalence of resource integration and consider whether integrating resources remains central to marriages today and what implications this has for arguments about the growing individualization of marriage. THE CHANGING INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE Shift to companionate marriage As sociologists and historians have previously documented, marriage as an institution evolves over time (Burgess & Locke, 1945; Cherlin, 2004; Coontz, 2004, 2005). …