Chuta women bargaining power-8 sept2016
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Transcript of Chuta women bargaining power-8 sept2016
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
THANK YOU!!