Conjugal Egalitarianism and Violence Across Cultures

Abstract

The concept of equality between spouses is analyzed and its relationship to physical violence is examined among couples in three contrasting settings in the U.S., Ireland and India. It is found that a focus on relative conjugal authority does not reveal the sources of marital violence as adequately as does the analysis of shared authority in marital relationship. The higher rates of conjugal discord and interspousal violence in the American context contrast the rates that obtain in the Irish and Indian cases. Their varying relationship with egalitarian marital styles, however, cannot be explained without a reference to the prevailing cultural dictates in each case. The congruence or disjunctive of cultural precepts with marital behavior seems best to predict the incidence of conjugal violence in the three cases.