Conjugal power and synchronic differentiation in productive organization

Diachronic differentiation in productive organization is considered to have great significance for family relations. The transition from family-based production to wage-work is considered to have had important consequences for gender and generational hierarchies within the family and for relations with other kin. On the other hand, the significance for family relations of synchronic differentiation in productive organization has scarcely been explored. In this paper the issue of the significance of synchronic differentiation in productive organization for conjugal power relations is approached by examination of data from a comparative study of family relations in artisan and worker households existing side by side in time and place, in a community of Athens, Greece. Artisan wives were found to have much less conjugal economic power than worker wives. This difference in power can be traced to a structural difference between the two types of production engaged in. However, it results in a difference in conjugal power only because it occurs together with specific features of the wider material and cultural context which both groups share.