Female Supremacy Articles - Page 28

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In Falls Church, Kristin Rodriguez, 42, said that with three young children and a part-time job as a social worker, she tends to have more say in choices of what to spend money on and where to spend weekend days as a family. Her husband works full time at an office.

When he comes home, he often defers to her and the children about television choices, though it helps that they have TiVo to record racing events and football games that he prefers. "I think he's learned to wait for us all to go to bed, and then he can watch what he wants," she said.

In prime-time hours, she handles the remote.

Pew researchers said that the television results could be affected by the fact that families have multiple televisions. They noted that a study by Nielsen Media Research showed that American homes, on average, included more televisions than people.

Cherlin, the Hopkins professor, said he was impressed that so many people who were polled said that their household decisions were jointly made, even though they were not given that choice as an answer to the poll's questions. They volunteered it.

"I'm struck by the fact that, overall, 31 percent of the people said the decision was shared, even though that option was not read to them," he said. "Clearly, there is more sharing than there used to be. There is more variation in who makes the decisions and less of a sense that the home is the man's castle."