Title

Covenant Marriage and the Sanctification of Gendered Marital Roles

Authors

Authors

E. H. Baker; L. A. Sanchez; S. L. Nock;J. D. Wright

Comments

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Abstract

This study contributes to research on the deinstitutionalization of marriage and changing gender ideologies by focusing on a unique group of marriage innovators. With quantitative and qualitative data from the Marriage Matters project (1997-2004), this study used a symbolic interactionist perspective to compare covenant- and standard-married couples. Findings reveal that covenants are more traditional than standards across religious, marital, and gender attitude indices. Qualitative analyses suggest that covenants see their marital status as a powerful symbol to publicly display their beliefs about the benefits and necessity of traditional religious marriage. Covenant-married couples defuse the stigma of gender subordination by casting it as a service to God and by crafting a hybrid form of gender traditionalism that incorporates emotional ethics of egalitarianism. Conversely, standard-married couples view gender, marriage, and religion as diffuse, privatized, individualized matters. Implications are discussed in light of further research on contemporary marriage and shifting gender roles.

Journal Title

Journal of Family Issues

Volume

30

Issue/Number

2

Publication Date

1-1-2009

Document Type

Article

First Page

147

Last Page

178

WOS Identifier

WOS:000261946600001

ISSN

0192-513X

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