Poverty, Consent, and Choice in Early Marriage
Ethnographic Perspectives from Urban Tanzania
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11220447 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Laura Starks (0000-0002-3342-1712, University of Jyväskylä, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 565-581 |
| Publication date | 2018-08-18 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Marriage & Family Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0149-4929 • E-ISSN: 1540-9635 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01494929.2017.1403998 |
| OpenAlex | W2789842390 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 21 |
| References cited | 17 |
The assumed inability of adolescents to voluntarily consent to marriage is a key definition of child marriage. Using ethnography, this study approaches consent, self-determination, and fulfillment as dependent on the ability to make choices, not only between actual alternatives but also between perceived alternatives. In contexts of severe poverty, more attention is needed to the lack of viable alternatives open to families, and their motives in this context. In this study, 171 persons were interviewed in two majority-Muslim neighborhoods in Dar es Salaam. Some girls reported wanting to marry early, since poverty forces them to become adults capable of supporting themselves at roughly age 15–16, regardless of the personal wishes of their parents or guardians. Prior research tends to assume that early marriage prevents girls from continuing their education. This study suggests that educational opportunities are often closed off to girls before marriage. Policy recommendations given here are that organizations can more effectively address early marriage by (1) shifting the focus from legislation to urban poverty alleviation, (2) creating more employment opportunities for the poorest women in the city, (3) campaigning for more gender-equal attitudes in the informal employment sector, and (4) reducing financial costs of secondary schooling for adolescents
Child marriage · Context (archaeology · Developing country · Economic growth · Economics · Ethnography · Geography · Legislation · Political science · Poverty · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Tanzania · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Law · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Sex work and related issues
Girls’ Sexuality Between Agency and Vulnerability
Girls’ Sexuality Between Agency and Vulnerability
The ‘Demand Side’ of Child Marriage
The pitfalls of modelling the effects of Covid-19 on gender-based violence
Assessing the spatio-temporal pattern and determinants of child marriage in Nigeria
Nikah Muda
Assessing the social patterning and magnitude of inequalities in sexual violence among young women in Uganda
Socio-ecological factors of girl child marriage
The Lived Experience of Early Marriage in Jordan
Judges’ perspectives on changes in the legal minimum age at marriage in Indonesia
If she gets married when she is young, she will give birth to many kids’
Women’s reproductive health and economic activity
Adapting a U.S.-based micro-savings program for Uganda
Marriage, poverty and inferiority
Child Marriage in Mainland China
Unpacking the Discourse of Child Marriage in Indonesia
Married Too Young? The Behavioral Ecology of 'Child Marriage
Parent-offspring conflict unlikely to explain 'child marriage' in northwestern Tanzania
Why daughters may choose early marriage
Child Marriage in Canada
Impact of Tuition-Free Education Policy on Child Marriage and Early Childbearing
Love in the Time of Aids
Transactional sex amongst young people in rural northern Tanzania
A Plague of Paradoxes
Young People's Lives and Sexual Relationships in Rural Africa
Human rights and reproductive health
Skinning the goat and pulling the load
Haraka, Haraka… Look before You Leap
Economic Impacts of Child Marriage
Gender equality and women's empowerment
Coercion, Consent and the Forced Marriage Debate in the UK
Stages of Development
Looking for the one(s)
Revisiting the economics of transactional sex
Age and Economic Asymmetries in the Sexual Relationships of Adolescent Girls in Sub‐Saharan Africa
Under Western Eyes
Forced Marriage
| Unique citing works | 21 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 21 |