Gender dynamics and marital bargaining in the Global South

Bargaining between husband and wife is reflective of the power dynamics in marriage. Women's access to resources and power through bargaining is integral to their empowerment, particularly in the Global South, where more traditional patriarchal family cultures prevail. This review summarizes the key theories concerning marital bargaining and evaluates the recent developments in research on marital bargaining by exploring patterns, determinants, and consequences of bargaining over power and resources among couples in the Global South. Several future research directions are proposed: examining the long‐term implications of the Covid‐19 pandemic on women's agency, employing a more comparative approach, and navigating marital bargaining from a broader family context.