A study, which was just released, finds that wives have more power than their husbands in making decisions and dominating discussions.

"The study at least suggests that the marriage is a place where women can exert some power," said lead author David Vogel, a psychologist at Iowa State University (ISU). "Whether or not it's because of changing societal roles, we don't know.¡±

The results counter past research.

¡°Most of the research literature in psychology has suggested that women have less power,¡± Vogel told LiveScience. ¡°They have largely based that on the fact that traditionally men earn more money and so therefore would have the ability to make big decisions in the relationship.¡± That wasn¡¯t the case in this study.

Spouse survey says

Vogel, Megan Murphy, also of ISU, and their colleagues surveyed 72 married couples in which the spouses were an average of 33 years old and had been married for about seven years. Most of the participants (66 percent) were Caucasian, followed by Asian (22 percent), Hispanic (5 percent) and African American (4 percent). The final 3 percent represented ¡°other¡± nationalities.

Each spouse answered questions about relationship satisfaction and overall decision-making ability. Then, each spouse noted a relationship problem that could not be resolved without the spouse¡¯s cooperation. While money and housework were popular picks, sex didn¡¯t come up much as a marital issue.