Women’s struggle for emancipation through their dealings with money

Our study explores women’s appropriation of the democratic ideal of equality and autonomy as revealed through their handling of money within a couple relationship. We based our study on 30 in-depth interviews with partners of heterosexual couples in [country]. Our results show that women problematize themselves in terms of their autonomy and equality between the sexes through their relationship with money. They are rooting a core issue concerning their emancipation in ordinary, everyday, and apparently insignificant gestures which are often invisible to a casual onlooker. What is being witnessed, therefore, is the gendered personalisation of a social issue, with women working towards their emancipation individually rather than collectively. Gender relations are thus being reshaped, integrating two contemporary values: women’s emancipation and the emphasis on the individual.