Women's age at first marriage and postmarital agency in Egypt

Crandall, AliceAnn; VanderEnde, Kristin; Cheong, Yuk Fai; Dodell, Sylvie; Yount, Kathryn M.

doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2016.01.005

Cited by 34 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Worldwide, South Asia has the highest levels of child marriage (before age 18) (Jain and Kurtz 2007; United Nations (UN) 2000), and Bangladesh has the highest levels of very early child marriage (before age 15) (Erulkar 2013; Solotaroff and Pande 2014). 1 Because child marriage limits the resources at a bride’s disposal (Chowdhury 2004), it may influence her early and longer-term empowerment within marriage (Crandall et al n.d.; Yount et al n.d.; but see also Crandall et al 2016). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Child Marriage and Intimate Partner Violence in Rural Bangladesh: A Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis

et al. 2016

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Child marriage (before age 18) is a risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. Worldwide, Bangladesh has the highest prevalence of IPV and very early child marriage (before age 15). How the community prevalence of very early child marriage influences a woman’s risk of IPV is unknown. Using panel data (2013–2014) from 3,355 women first married 4–12 years prior in 77 Bangladeshi villages, we tested the protective effect of a woman’s later first marriage (at age 18 or older), the adverse effect of a higher village prevalence of very early child marriage, and whether any protective effect of a woman’s later first marriage was diminished or reversed in villages where very early child marriage was more prevalent. Almost one-half (44.5 %) of women reported incident physical IPV, and 68.9 % had married before age 18. The village-level incidence of physical IPV ranged from 11.4 % to 75.0 %; the mean age at first marriage ranged from 14.8 to 18.0 years. The mean village-level prevalence of very early child marriage ranged from 3.9 % to 51.9 %. In main-effects models, marrying at 18 or later protected against physical IPV, and more prevalent very early child marriage before age 15 was a risk factor. The interaction of individual later marriage and the village prevalence of very early child marriage was positive; thus, the likely protective effect of marrying later was negated in villages where very early child marriage was prevalent. Collectively reducing very early child marriage may be needed to protect women from IPV.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Child Marriage and Intimate Partner Violence in Rural Bangladesh: A Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis

et al. 2016

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“…Since social norms for women in Egypt favor more births (El-Zeini 2008), women with agency could be fulfilling social expectations of having children. There is an increasing awareness that substantial progress in improving women’s agency requires changing not only women’s own skills and access to work and financial resources (e.g., through education, work programs, and microfinance), but also changes in the social environments in which women live (Crandall et al 2016; Yount et al 2015). Given the implications of women’s public behavior for family reputations and honor in Egypt and social norms that govern women’s behavior, reproductive events are likely influenced by other factors at the community level.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Marital patriarchal constraints that may be correlated with women’s agency (Crandall et al 2016) and the relationship between agency and fertility like age at marriage and being related to one’s husband are also included. Age at marriage is dichotomized to indicate whether the respondent was married before age of 18 or at 18 years or older.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Agency includes the ability to formulate one’s own strategic choices, to control resources, and to make attitudinal changes under evolving constraints (Crandall et al 2016; Dyson and Moore 1983; Yount et al 2015). While there are several related terms including women’s status, gender equality, and women’s autonomy, agency is a context-specific, multidimensional construct, operating at individual and collective levels with application to societies, like Egypt, where women’s social relations are integral to their identities (Allendorf 2012; Kabeer 2011; Yount et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Women’s outside labor force participation is infrequent, and women take on traditional roles in the household. Women are typically married between 18 and 23 years old and spend majority of their time physically inside of their homes (Crandall et al 2016; El-Zanaty and Way 2009). In 2005 in Minya, Egypt, women reported very little agency as less than 15% of women made household decisions about healthcare, large purchases, or visits to family and friends (Yount et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Women’s Agency and Fertility: Recent Evidence from Egypt

Samari

2017

Popul Res Policy Rev

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Fertility reached a two decade high of 3.5 births per woman in Egypt in 2014. Lower status of women is associated with higher fertility. Majority of the studies on women’s agency and fertility rely on individual level cross-sectional data from South Asia, which limits the understanding of variation among communities and the direction of the relationship between women’s agency and fertility in other global contexts. This study examines the relationship between women’s agency and fertility longitudinally and among communities in the most populous country in the Middle East — Egypt. For 3,795 ever married women 15 to 49 years old in the 2006 and 2012 Egyptian Labor Market Panel Survey, multilevel models are estimated for having given birth and number of births between 2006 and 2012. Contrary to expectation, women with more agency with greater participation in household decision-making and mobility are, in fact, more likely to have had a birth and have a greater total number of births. Only women with more egalitarian attitudes are associated with fewer births. Community membership explains 5% of the variation in fertility. Since social norms in Egypt favor a higher number of births and labor market participation among women is low, women with agency could be fulfilling social expectations of having children and choosing to have more children.

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