CONCEPTUALIZING GENDER IN MARRIAGE - THE CASE OF MARITAL CARE

Sex differences and sex roles have dominated the study of gender in families. Several scholars offer an alternative approach that focuses on the institutional and interactional context. This perspective links four levels of analysis-broader socio-historical context, immediate context, interactional processes, and individual outcomes-into a single process of the social construction of gender. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize and elaborate current thinking on the gender perspective. The paper is structured so that the reader is presented with the basic concepts, questions, and connections at each level of analysis. I use care in marriage to illustrate the perspective. Care is the activity of protecting and promoting another person's welfare. Rather than ask whether women or men are more caring, the gender perspective asks what conditions are necessary for women and men to care.