Changes in the Institution of Marriage in Egypt from 1998 to 2012

The gendered effects of labour market experiences on marriage timing in Egypt

“…The transition to first union of men with positive labour market experiences, therefore, should be accelerated because they are well placed to finance marriage and provide day-to-day economic support once a new household is set up. Among contemporary marriage cohorts, we may assume that newlywed couples establish a nuclear household upon marriage, 5 or aspire to establish a nuclear family shortly thereafter (Brink 1987;Salem 2015). Grooms must therefore demonstrate their self-sufficiency with a positive employment history before marriage.…”

“…Instead, my next hypothesis follows the ethnographic evidence from Egypt and is in line with Oppenheimer's model: 5 According to national Egyptian data from 2006, just under two-thirds of ever-married women aged 18-39 who had married within the previous five years established nuclear households at the start of their marriages. The percentage of couples achieving residential independence upon marriage reaches 84% among urban dwellers (Salem 2015).…”

“…Although multivariate results for Egyptian men are mixed (Sokona and Casterline 1988;Assaad Binzel, and Gadallah 2010), descriptive analyses indicate that there is an educational gradient such that men with increasing education have older mean ages at first marriage (Salem 2015). Among Egyptian women, there appears to be a consistent positive relationship between educational attainment and age at marriage (Heaton 1996;Sokona and Casterline 1988).…”

“…Some view this sustained increase (Mensch, Singh, and Casterline 2005;Rashad and Osman 2005) as a welcome development in a country where the population growth rate is high and where many women wed during adolescence (Singerman and Ibrahim 2003). However, many Egyptians today perceive young people's inability to marry at the time of their choosing as a pressing social problem (Salem 2015(Salem , 2016. Because marriage is the only socially accepted context for residential independence (Assaad and Barsoum 2009), sexual relations, and childbearing in Egypt (Salem 2015(Salem , 2016Singerman 2007), many young people express frustration with their delayed departure from the parental home (Salem 2010), and some public figures worry that involuntarily single adults experience social exclusion that may lead to so-called moral deviance or religious extremism (Rashed 2006;Slackman 2008).…”

“…However, many Egyptians today perceive young people's inability to marry at the time of their choosing as a pressing social problem (Salem 2015(Salem , 2016. Because marriage is the only socially accepted context for residential independence (Assaad and Barsoum 2009), sexual relations, and childbearing in Egypt (Salem 2015(Salem , 2016Singerman 2007), many young people express frustration with their delayed departure from the parental home (Salem 2010), and some public figures worry that involuntarily single adults experience social exclusion that may lead to so-called moral deviance or religious extremism (Rashed 2006;Slackman 2008). Among scholars (Assaad and Barsoum 2009;Assaad, Binzel, and Gadallah 2010;Singerman 2007), media commentators (Salem 2016), and young people themselves (Hoodfar 1997;Salem 2010;Singerman 1995), the 'social problem' of delayed marriage is linked to economic conditions, particularly labour market conditions, in Egypt.…”