Abera, M. et al. (2020) ‘Early marriage and women’s empowerment: the case of child-brides in Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia’, BMC International Health and Human Rights, 20(1), pp. 1–17.
The author commenced by explaining how early marriage is affecting girls more than boys and its prevalence in developing countries. Early marriage is defined as a marriage relationship entered into before attaining majority age as stipulated by the governing laws. Both boys and girls are the victims of early marriage, however, the norm supports girls’ early marriage more than boys. There are various socio-economic and normative factors that are interlinked with a girl’s early marriage. This includes poverty, illiteracy, tradition, patriarchy…etc. which undermines women’s social status, capabilities, and choices. According to the data used by the author, 59% of girls in Ethiopia were married before 18 years of age. The effect of early marriage is wide-ranging on victim girls. It marks the end of their childhood, limiting their right of attending school, acquiring skills, personal development, and self-reliance. The author appreciated the legal and policy action taken by the Ethiopian government to alleviate early child marriage through the enactment of the 1995 FDRE constitution, revision of the Family Code, and the introduction of Reorient societal attitude towards and valuation of women in education, training, and development.
The study employed a mixed qualitative and quantitative research approach. A cross-sectional study design with descriptive and analytical components is used to analyse the effects of early marriage on women’s empowerment. Data were collected through Focus Group Discussions, In-depth interviews, and surveys. Probability and purposive sampling techniques were used for the selection of study participants and accordingly, 1278 married women were selected and participated in the study.
According to the finding, early marriage varies across urban and rural, and religions. Accordingly, early marriage was high among Orthodox Christians and the rural population when compared with the others. The study also indicated that early marriage is early directly contributing to divorce. Girls married before 18 years dissolved their first marriage and remarried than those married after 18 years of age. As the child brides would not have a strong foundation to build their marriage and they end up being divorcees. After divorce, they migrate to urban areas and, due to a lack of opportunities for education or employment, become street children or, worse, prostitutes. On the other hand child brides who stay in their marriage to their first husbands were highly vulnerable to spousal abuse and violence. Coming to decision-making role and property administration, child brides’ decision-making role in family-related transactions/economic activities, child brides are mostly powerless in making or negotiating decisions with their husbands on important household matters than those women married as adults. Even they don’t have the autonomy to decide whether to take contraceptive methods or not, time of conceiving, spacing, and number of children they will have. The study underlined that husbands retained disproportionate power in deciding whether or not wives will use contraceptives and when to have children. The author concluded that early marriage eludes women’s autonomy and empowerment. If they do not have much decision-making power in the domestic sphere, which is traditionally defined as their domain, the gap in the public sphere, which is traditionally out of their reach or influence will not be improved.