Chuta, N. (2017). Young women’s household bargaining power in marriage and parenthood in Ethiopia, Young Lives, Vol. 166
In Ethiopia, where patriarchal and male-dominated power structures still predominate, the study examines the factors that affect young married women’s bargaining power in marriage and parenthood. It is based on survey information as well as longitudinal qualitative data that Young Lives collected from children, adolescents, and their families between 2007 and 2015.
Chuta used the concept of bargaining power, primarily from the perspective of economics, to understand gender inequality. However, this paper, which is primarily qualitative, interprets bargaining power to mean the ability of young married women to negotiate within their marriages and households.
The paper makes the argument that intra-household, social-institutional, and individual factors interact to shape young women’s agency towards bargaining power in various spheres of their lives. It strengthens the argument that factors like urban or rural residence, education, standard of living, customs, and norms work together to shape young women’s bargaining power in marriage and that decisions are typically made at a collective level as opposed to the individual level, where agency is frequently very limited.
The results showed that girls who were raised in rural areas and households with lower incomes had a higher likelihood of getting married by the time they turned 19 years old. 11% of young women in rural areas are either married, unemployed, or in school. The majority of girls who marry typically do so after completing their education or after quitting their paid jobs. There are no girls who marry young and continue their education in rural areas.
Chuta states that, in a society where the husband is primarily expected to work to support the family while the wife stays at home to care for the kids, the relationship between work and family is complex. When women have young children in particular, work and family do not interact, and gender roles become more segregated. Men are expected to earn more than women, regardless of their individual skills or educational background, because married women are full-time mothers and wives. Even though women today have access to employment opportunities, particularly in urban areas, having children typically means a career interruption, which increases their dependence on their husbands for financial support.
The paper makes the suggestion that policies and programmes aimed at reducing gender inequality at the intra-household level should take into account the broader contexts in which those households are situated, including how cultural beliefs and norms shape marital practises, gender and generational relations, and decision-making more generally.