The Consequences of Gender in Homogamic Couples

In studies which analyse the social distance between spouses at the moment a couple is formed, and which attempt to understand the role of the family, and in particular of marriage, in crystallising social divisions, the concept of homogamy has often been purely descriptive. This article questions this static approach and seeks to pinpoint the changes which social homogamy undergoes in the course of conjugal life, addressing women’s decisions on work–family articulation. Drawing on a critical approach to the concept of rational choice, the article intends to demonstrate the merit of an interpretative approach by analysing how members of a sample of 27 university-educated Portuguese partnered mothers take their decisions in the context of an interdependency framework in which the dynamics of family interaction tend to thwart individual career path development, rendering spouses dependent on each other.

Narratives and counter-narratives on "marriage of convenience" : conjugality and (il)legality in portuguese migration policies and in couples’ experiences

Tese de doutoramento, Sociologia (Sociologia da Família, Juventude e das Relações do Género), Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, 2016

Defence Mechanisms of Infertile Couples vs Fertile Couples

Defence mechanisms (DM) were investigated in infertile couples (n = 60) waiting for their first infertility consultation, making use of the Defense Mechanisms Inventory (DMI). When compared with results of fertile couples (n = 60), infertile men and women showed a significant trend to avoid the use of defence mechanisms that enable the expression of aggressive impulses as well as a tendency to overuse defence mechanisms that enable the rationalization and negation of frustrating sutations. Such data seem to indicate the presence of defensive inflexibility in couples affected by reproductive stress, while in common couples defensive flexibility is to be expected.