The role of rural women in family decision making in Iraq

Questionnaires were administered separately to both husbands and wives in 200 randomly selected farm families in Baghdad Province. Nearly 200 items in the questionnaire were used to measure the variables specified in 20 hypotheses. The hypotheses were tested on six distinct types of conjugal decision making as determined by factor analysis; farm, financial, social tie, entertainment, child training, and childrearing. The method of analysis was multiple regression. Hypotheses were derived from three theoretical perspectives: resource, individual modernism, and task allocation.

The task thesis, that decision making power follows from task allocation, was strongly supported by our findings. In addition, our data indicate considerable diffusion of power to scopes beyond the areas of task allotment. Most especially, in rural Iraq, participation in heavy farm tasks seems to engender decisional participation in nearly all areas of family life.

"Resource theory," the thesis that conjugal power is dependent on resources possessed by spouse or family, received only minimal support in this research. The production of sons, the maintenance of strong kinship ties by the wife, and the limitation of such ties for the husband were resources which increased the decisional participation of wives. However, the resource variables most often found to be of consequence in previous research had no impact or contradictory effects in rural Iraq. These variables include education, literacy, income, level of living, years of marriage, and absence of young children.

The individual modernism perspective fared somewhat better than the resource perspective when applied to our data. Support for the hypothesis that a modern nuclear family orientation produces greater conjugal participation for the wife was particularly notable. The positive impact of high achievement orientation among wives was also an important finding. Otherwise, however, the impact of modernism factors was scattered and sometimes contradictory. The effects of change orientation and an equalitarian attitude toward women were slight.

Most importantly, the effect of the array of psychological modernism variables is partially offset by the very strong importance of the wife's participation in heavy farm tasks as a source of conjugal power in most areas of family life. Since greater participation in these tasks is largely a consequence of traditionalism, ongoing modernization of rural agriculture may provide forces which limit decision making participation by the wife. Greater participation by the wife in financial tasks is the only task which is positively affected by factors of modernization. Still, on balance, it is VI1 likely that psychological modernism will continue to grow and that it will enhance the position of the women in a rural society which today remains quite patriarchal.