Young Women’s Household Bargaining Power in Marriage and Parenthood in Ethiopia Nardos Chuta Conference on Adolescence, Youth and Gender: Building Knowledge for Change Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford 08 September 2016
Young Women’s Household Bargaining Power in Marriage and Parenthood in Ethiopia
Nardos ChutaConference on Adolescence, Youth and Gender: Building
Knowledge for Change
Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford08 September 2016
• Study Context
• Literature Review
• Findings
• Key Messages
• Policy Implications
OUTLINE
Study ContextSTUDY CONTEXT
Research Objective
To examine factors affecting the bargaining power of young married women in marriage and parenthood
Data Collection, Respondents and Sites
• Descriptive Survey Statistics: • Latest Young Lives survey round (2013)
• Qualitative data: • Main Young Lives sample from 2007-2014 • A sub-study on young people’s pathways in
2015• Data collected from in-depth individual
interviews• Respondents: young women who got married
when they were 16/17 years of age • Research sites: one urban and two rural
communities
STUDY CONTEXT
Conceptual FocusBargaining power is young women’s agency in household decision-making before and after marriage.
Household Decision-making Dynamics and Women’s Agency• Range of measurements (Doss 2011; UNICEF 2006; Mutakalin
2008)• Social norms (Agarwal 1997; Schmidt 2012; Rao et al. 2005;
Mutakalin 2008)Ethiopian Women and Policy Contexts • Women have unequal access to productive assets and other
resources (Adal 2006; World Bank 2015)• Constitution and national policies on gender equality in the areas
of health, education, livelihoods and basic human rights• Major area of policy concern for girls and women: harmful
traditional practices, including early marriage, female genital cutting, rape and abduction
LITERATURE REVIEW
There are significant gender gaps
• At higher levels in education: enrolment of adolescent girls lower than boys (UNDP 2012)
• In rural areas (Gella and Getnet 2014)
• Women’s political representation is also low (Biseswar, 2008)
• Household decision-making processes: traditional norms and practices limit women’s agency in decision-making
• Women and girls are disadvantaged in the areas of literacy, health, livelihoods and basic human rights (Massow 2002)
• Ethiopia ranked 129 out 188 countries in the Gender Inequality Index in 2014 (UNDP 2015)
• Lagged behind in Millennium Development Goal 3 (United Nations 2013).
LITERATURE REVIEW
Quantitative Data
Schooling and Work:• 24% of rural girls vs. 48% urban completed secondary school by age
19• 26% of rural girls vs. 7% urban stopped school after completing lower
primary• 5% of 19 year olds in rural areas were married and do not study or
work Marriage• By age 19, one in six
young women were married
• Highest prevalence in rural areas
• 24% married in Oromia; 21% in Amhara
QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS
Qualitative Data• Dynamics of young women’s roles in decision-making vary
across:– Time– Age and /or maturity – Expectations from the society – Structural factors– Case study examples: Fatuma; Ayu; Beletech
• Household shocks (e.g. parental illness and death; drought) affected girls’ work responsibilities and school drop out before marriage in (rural) Zeytuni
• In the rural areas, the following limited women’s bargaining power:
– Low educational attainment – Husbands’ preference for their wives to remain outside of
education – Male dominated culture – Expectation from husbands that wives are only meant for
the domestic sphere
FINDINGS: SCHOOLING AND WORK
• Four married girls made marriage decision themselves, influenced by: poverty, peer influence and marriage proposal refusals
• Marriage arrangement types and marriage transactions impact on bargaining power and agency, e.g. Haymanot
• Decisions around marriage are closely intertwined with decisions around parenting and fertility
• Young women’s fertility/parenthood decisions influenced by:– Lack of own income– Not being well-educated (Sessen and Haymanot)– Normative expectations (Ayu)– The husbands and mothers of the young women
• Women’s decision-making power regarding place to give birth affected by cultural norms and unpaid bride wealth
• Traditional expectations, husbands, mothers, and in-laws are the major actors who usually take part in the decisions around parenthood
FINDINGS: MARRIAGE AND PARENTHOOD
• Marriage affected young women’s social networks and placed new social responsibilities on their shoulders
– E.g. increased expectation for young women to take part Iddir (burial association) and Maheber (religious gathering)
• Limited interactions with previous friends after marriage and relationships restricted to married peers
• In general, marriage and motherhood limited young women’s social relations by turning their focus to the domestic arena – Limited bargaining power associated with friends– But increased bargaining power in that married women are
expected to participate in social institutions.
FINDINGS: SOCIAL RELATIONS AFTER MARRIAGE
Main messages: 1. Poverty intersected with other factors, debilitating young
women’s bargaining power and their agency is very thin
2. At the social-institutional level, agency in marriage and parenthood is affected by: the form of the marriage; the amount of marriage transaction; and traditional norms (male-dominance)
3. Decisions at the household level are constituted by multiple actors - bargaining power entails that individuals bargain with other individuals as well as with the existing traditional system
Policy Implications:Policies aimed at helping women exercise gender equality must consider:
– Factors at household level, individual level and community level
– Contexts and cultural beliefs– Role of relationships
KEY MESSAGES AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS
THANK YOU!!