Marital Trajectories, Women’s Autonomy, and Women’s Well-Being in Senegal

Abstract

Divorce is frequent and widowhood is a common predicament for women in Africa, due in particular to the fact that women marry older men. Remarriage appears to take place relatively rapidly: the median duration between widowhood and remarriage among those who remarry is one year. For those who are divorced it is two years. A key question is how such discontinuous marital trajectories affect women’s well-being. Women’s marital trajectories in Senegal are described and correlated with measures of voice, resource constraints, and consumption welfare. Considerable selection into divorce and widowhood as well as subsequent remarriage is documented. Poorer women are more vulnerable to both dissolutions and remarriage and hence bear more of the costs while being nevertheless afforded a safety net in the form of a male protector. Marital breakdowns and their aftermaths are far from neutral in terms of women’s well-being.

Parental divorces and children’s educational outcomes in Senegal

“…The Senegalese context differs from the context of these two countries: divorces are neither rare nor common (about 20% of first unions in Senegal end by a divorce, closer to the average in sub-Saharan Africa (Clark and Brauner-Otto, 2015)). Additionally, divorces in Senegal are more common among couples from better-off backgrounds (Lambert et al (2019), on the same dataset as us) than among couples from poorer backgrounds. As the impact of a divorce on children is likely to vary depending on the social context and on family characteristics, expanding the range of countries studied contributes to better understanding the consequences of divorces.…”

“…Additionally, qualitative work does not always describe remarriage as a choice for women. When women can afford not to remarry, they tend to remain single (Lambert et al, 2019). We expect remarriage to have a positive impact for women who face difficult financial situations.…”

“…If children were born to a couple that divorces, then who will have custody of the children needs to be decided. There is uncertainty over children's residence place: Lambert et al (2019) stress that women often declare in interviews that they worry about their children being taken away from them, should they separate from their husbands. In case of a formal divorce, the judge decides on the children's residence and declares one parent to be the main caregiver.…”

“…41% of ever-divorced women have remarried at the time of the survey and 42% live with at least one of their parents. Few divorced women live on their own, due to financial constraints as well as social norms that dictate that child-bearing age women should be married (Lambert et al, 2019). Divorced women may also choose to move back to their parents' house in order to benefit for their financial and emotional support as well as help with her children.…”

Incomes, employment and gender roles: understanding women's intrahousehold decision-making participation in Nicaragua

“…Women's age and education are other factors that increase women's outside options and determine decision-making power (Anderson, Reynolds, & Gugerty, 2017;Heaton et al, 2005;Menon & Sharma, 2020), as well as relative age and education between the partners (Bertocchi, Brunetti, & Torricelli, 2014;Osanya, Adam, Otieno, Nyikal, & Jaleta, 2020;Sell & Minot, 2018). Along the same lines, past marriage history can change the expectations and fall-back position of household members, since they reflect the breakout of a preceding contract, with remarried couples being more likely to make decisions individually than firstmarriage couples (Lambert, van de Walle, & Villar, 2018;Yusof & Duasa, 2010).…”