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

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