Cohabiting and Married Couples' Income Organization: Approaches in Sweden and the United States

Using 1994 International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data, we examine the effect that cohabitation versus marriage has on couples' income organization approaches in Sweden and the United States, two legally and normatively different contexts. Previous research on this topic has focused almost exclusively on married couples, so our inclusion of both married and cohabiting couples helps fill a gap in the literature. The effects of ever having been divorced, socioeconomic homogamy, and traditional gender ideology also are explored. Type of relationship and ever having been divorced are the only variables that predict income organization approach in both countries, suggesting that relationship experiences are more important than socioeconomic or ideological factors. Key Words: cohabitation, comparative, divorce, finance, income organization, money management. Income organization is a central aspect of family life (Burgoyne & Morison, 1997). Not only is money critical for acquiring basic provisions (e.g., food, clothing, shelter), but it is also closely intertwined with intangible aspects of intimate relationships. For example, financial arrangements are tightly linked with power and inequality between partners (Blumstein & Schwartz, 1983; Pahl, 1990; Vogler, 1998). How couples organize their income also has been found to have widereaching consequences for relationship satisfaction, intimacy, trust, and commitment (Blumstein & Schwartz). Although income organization is very important in couple relationships, the subject has not received much empirical attention. This lacuna is initially surprising considering that, regardless of how much or how little money a couple makes, all couples must "deal with the day-to-day management of their finances" (Blumstein & Schwartz, 1983, p. 77). There are several possible reasons for the little attention paid to income organization. For one thing, as Singh and Lindsay (1996) noted, classical sociological studies tended to conceptualize money as a market phenomenon. As a result, there was little research that examined money and personal relationships. In addition, income organization in couple relationships is often viewed as a personal, private issue, and some researchers have found that getting respondents to be forthcoming about this issue is quite difficult (see, for example, Blumstein & Schwartz; Pahl, 1989). Also, Lown and Dolan (1994) pointed out that the way couples organize their money was a nonissue 20 or 30 years ago, because intermingling of finances was the assumed practice. The proliferation of women into the workforce in the past few decades (Fullerton, 1999), however, means that many women now have their own income. Thus financial independence, rather than interdependence, is a viable alternative. Most of the limited work on income organization has looked at married couples (see, for example, Pahl, 1989; Treas, 1993; Wilson, 1987). The few studies that have included heterosexual cohabiting unions (Blumstein & Schwartz, 1983; Singh & Lindsay, 1996) or gay and lesbian co-habitors (Blumstein & Schwartz) are limited by small, nonrepresentative samples. It also is interesting to note that much of the work on income organization comes from outside the United States. A number of studies were carried out in Great Britain (see, e.g., Burgoyne & Morison, 1997; Pahl, 1989; Vogler & Pahl, 1993); Australia (see, e.g., Edwards, 1981; Glezer & Mills, 1991; Singh & Lindsay); and New Zealand (Fleming, 1997). The major purpose of the present study is to see whether being married versus being in a heterosexual cohabiting relationship affects how couples organize income in Sweden and the United States. The specific aspect of income organization that is the focus here is independent money management. Does type of relationship predict the likelihood that both partners keep money separate? The effects of ever having being divorced, socioeconomic homogamy, and traditional gender ideology also are explored, but the primary concern is whether cohabiting couples are more likely than married couples to keep their incomes separate once these other variables have been taken into account. …