The Structure of Power Diistriibutiion wiithiin the Famiilly

This is an empirical study on power in the family. The structure of power within family has been measured in three aspects: symmetric relation, area of power, and the couple strategy. The study attempt to offer a definition of the democratic family, which leads to the construction of scales in order to measure the dimensions of family structure. Social survey is applied as the methodological orientation with a sample covering 200 cases. The statistical techniques used include: dispersion and central indices, bivariate and partial correlation, factor analysis, regression equations, and path analysis. The findings indicate that the structure of power in the south Tehran is less democratic than that of north Tehran. Results show that factors such as women’s education, their employment and participation in spouse choosing would incline power structure closer to more democratic family, while submissive self-conception, on the part of women, and the authoritarian one, on the part of men, cause power structure to lean toward less democratic family.