A Life-History Approach to the Practice of Early Marriage in Ethiopia

Byung-Soo Seol

doi:10.21049/ccs.2016.42..69

Early marriage in contemporary society has brought about many problems. The practice is encouraged by gender inequality, poverty and social norms. It reproduces social power imbalances including increased economic vulnerability of women, low educational attainment of girls, gender inequality at home and in the labor market, physical and sexual violence against women and their health problems. The Ethiopian government increased the minimum legal age of marriage for women from 15 to 18 years, by revising its family code in 2000 and newly adopting a criminal law in 2005 that includes punishment against any harmful tradition. Nonetheless, early marriage is still widely practiced in many parts of rural Ethiopia. This is because the practice has long been embedded and deeply rooted in the lives of the people. Earlier literature on early marriage in Ethiopia tends to focus only on women’s experiences and regard that all early-married people, particularly women, are unhappy with their lives. This paper attempts to explore the issue of early marriage through voices of people with diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, in order to address the limitations of the previous literature. This article aims at examining why early marriage has occurred in Ethiopia and how it has affected family life and women’s educational attainment, focusing on the case of Meki town. As seen from this study, it is true that early marriage generally had negative influences on the lives of women. However, it is equally true that some men are also victims of the practice while some women have improved their lives by means of it. This implies that we need to listen to the voices of diverse people when we examine early marriage.

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