This research examines the relationship between gender, controlling one's spouse, and the effect this control has on staying married as expressed in marital commitment. The authors examine structural and cultural views as a way of theoretically understanding the relationship between gender, control, and commitment. The results suggest that both theoretical processes may be operating. The expectations tied to men's and women's structural positions and the control that these positions imply for interaction (the structural view), as well as what control means for men and women and the responses that follow from this meaning (the cultural view), appear to be simultaneously operating in marital interaction. These results suggest that cultural meanings and social structural meanings coalesce to produce predictable outcomes for commitment in marriage.
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