ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to explore the extent to which key processes within households can be

explained on the basis of the theory outlined in Chapter 1. A distinction is made between

relations of gender and generation and, for the sake of convenience, the two sets of relations

are considered separately. Gender relations which have been most extensively examined in the

literature include the domestic division of labour, the management and control of household

finance, the determination of responsibility for making important decisions within the

household, and the formation and long-term maintenance of heterosexual ties. Generational

relations discussed in the literature include the determination of parental responsibility, historical

changes in fertility rates, the nature of parent-child reciprocity, and the transition to adulthood

for young people. In this chapter, rational choice theory will be used to cast light on all these

phenomena, showing how the decisions of individual human beings, based on their perceptions

of how to fulfil their desires most effectively in given contexts, determine to an unexpectedly

high degree the outcomes for the households of which they are members.