Matrifocality
Matrifocality – also referred to as matricentricity – is a culturally accepted system in which the primary responsibility for the well-being and material welfare of the family or household rests with the mother or another woman. The father, brothers, or husband are either absent or play only a minor role in family life.
Matrifocality should not be confused with matrilocality, in which a man is present and participates in family life, or with dislocality, in which husband and wife each remain living in their own tribe or kin group, while the children usually remain in the tribe or clan of the mother; see exogamy (Schwimmer, 2003).
Reference:
Schwimmer, B. (2003, October). Matrifocality: An emerging empirical and theoretical issue. Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba. Retrieved from https://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/residence/matrifocal.html
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