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GenderTalk: Women’s Agency in Marriage Choice

NCAER National Data Innovation Centre
Measurement Brief | 2023-03

Welcome to the third issue of GenderTalk from the NCAER-National Data Innovation Centre’s Gender Hub. In this issue of GenderTalk, we discuss women’s agency in marriage choice. We bring you articles by researchers that highlight some of the issues, followed by conversation with a practioner.

GenderTalk is a space where scholars, policymakers, and civil society members can engage with each other on a theme vital to women’s well-being in India. For previous issues, scroll to the bottom.

In particular, this brief discusses the following:

1. How much agency do Indian women have in marriage choices?  – In this introductory article, using data from the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS), Bipasa Banerjee(NCAER) finds that arranged marriages continue to thrive but educated women have a greater say in who they marry….more

 

2. Freedom to Choose? Single Women and Reasons for Evading Marriage  – In this article, Sarah Lamb (Brandeis University) examines whether women opt for singlehood by choice or circumstance, exploring the lives of 54 never-married women, ranging from age 35 to 92, in an ethnographic study….more

 

3. Marriage, Motherhood and Agency: Adolescent Girls’ Experiences in India – Using two waves from the UDAYA survey, KG Santhya (Independent Researcher) and AJ Francis Zavier (Population Council) find that delayed marriage is associated with an increase in egalitarian gender role attitudes for young women.…more

 

4. Indian Matchmaking: Are working women penalized in the marriage market?  – Using a correspondence experiment design on Shaadi.com, Diva Dhar (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation & Oxford Martin School finds that even among people using matrimonial websites, women who want to continue working after marriage get lower interest than women who do not plan to work….more

 

5. The Emergence of Educational Hypogamy in India  In this article, using data from the IHDS, Zhiyong Lin (University of Texas at San Antonio) show that the proportion of women who marry men with lower education levels than themselves increased from about 5% to nearly 20% between 1970s and 2000s…more

 

6. Conversation with Poonam Muttreja ( Population Foundation of India) on the flagship entertainment-education initiative “Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon” (I, A Woman, Can Achieve Anything’) and its role in empowering women, especially young adolescent girls, to raising their voices against the practice of early marriage, showing confidence to discuss and negotiate on issues such as family planning and domestic violence….more

 

READS…from around the web

Allendorf, K., & Pandian, R. K. (2016). The decline of arranged marriage? Marital change and continuity in India. Population and Development Review, 42(3), 435–464. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28344368/

Banerji, M., & Deshpande, A. S. (2021). Does ‘Love’ make a difference? Marriage choice and post-marriage decision-making power in India. Asian Population Studies, 17(2), 201-220. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17441730.2020.1852713

Dhar, D., (2023). Indian Matchmaking: Are Working Women Penalized in the Marriage Market? 1. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4479657

Jejeebhoy S, Acharya R, Alexander M, et al. Measuring agency among unmarried young women and men. Economic and Political Weekly. 2010; 45:56–64 https://knowledgecommons.popcouncil.org/departments_sbsr-pgy/1628/

Kaur, R. and Palriwala, R. (Eds.)  Marrying in South Asia: Shifting concepts, changing practices in a globalising world. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan. https://orientblackswan.com/details?id=9789352872732

Lamb, S. (2022). Being Single in India: Stories of Gender, Exclusion, and Possibility. Oakland: University of California Press. Open Access digital version available free of charge: https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1525/luminos.125/ or via Amazon.com

Lin, Z., Desai, S., & Chen, F. (2020). The emergence of educational hypogamy in India. Demography, 57, 1215–1240. https://read.dukeupress.edu/demography/article/57/4/1215/168096

Click here to download the current measurement brief

This measurement brief is part of the Gender Hub led by Dr Pallavi Choudhuri and Dr Sonalde Desai.

Previous Issues of GenderTalk:

2023-02: Gender and Land Rights;

2023-01: Gender and Public Safety

India’s Social and Economic Transformation in the 21st Century

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of India’s social and economic transformation in the decades leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic and explores both resilience and vulnerabilities in Indian society.

It provides an in-depth look into diverse aspects of how Indians live, earn a living and care for their children by examining vital indicators such as poverty, malnutrition, health and marriage and family relationships, among others. Analysing the data from the India Human Development Surveys, it presents a complex picture of India’s transformation and large economic and educational gains, while exploring the reasons why these have not translated into social transformation of a similar magnitude. The volume also describes the backdrop against which the COVID-19 pandemic crippled the Indian economy. In effect, it foreshadows the challenges that need to be addressed on the road to recovery. It argues that in order to reduce the scarring and ensure recovery for all, it will be important to focus on the underlying conditions faced by the most vulnerable sections of the Indian society as policymakers seek to effectively tend to issues of socio-economic inequality and marginalisation in the long run.

Rich in data and analysis, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of economics, political economy, sociology and development studies.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1| India’s Social and Economic Transformation
Pallavi Choudhuri, Sonalde Desai, Amaresh Dubey

Chapter 2| Why Did Poverty Decline in India?
Carlos Felipe Balcázar, Sonalde Desai, Rinku Murgai, Ambar Narayan

Chapter 3 | Do Income and Income Inequality Have Any Impact on Morbidity? Evidence From the India Human Development Survey
Sohini Paul

Chapter 4| Excess Weight in India
Pushkar Maitra, Nidhiya Menon

Chapter 5 | Does the Growing Private Sector Deliver Schooling for All? Role of Gender, Parental Altruism and Family Wealth
Pushkar Maitra, Sarmistha Pal, Anurag Sharma

Chapter 6 | Private Schooling in India
Suvarna Pande, Amaresh Dubey

Chapter 7| Expectations of Support From Daughters in India
Abhijit Visaria

Chapter 8| Are the Young and the Educated More Likely to Have “Love” Than Arranged Marriage?
Manjistha Banerji

Chapter 9| The Impact of Household Membership in Community-Based Organisations on Child Health and Education in Rural India
Mugdha Vaidya, Meghna Katoch Rana, Nabanita Datta Gupta

Assessing needs for interdisciplinarity in agriculture, nutrition, and health education

Addressing all forms of malnutrition requires multi-sectoral actions. To accelerate progress, post-graduate education – of future researchers, policy-makers and practitioners – that promotes interdisciplinary knowledge and skills is imperative. We report findings from a mixed-methods needs assessment designed to assess enabling and constraining factors to integrated agriculture, nutrition, and health education. An online questionnaire was disseminated among experts in relevant disciplines, followed by focus group discussions among faculty members teaching in post-graduate institutions in low- and middle-income countries. We find that student motivation, instructor background, fixed curricula, and siloes among implementation agencies are important barriers to interdisciplinary education. Experiential learning and collaborations within and across institutions are enabling factors. We present key aspects of an interdisciplinary educational model that consider systemic and institutional realities of specialized institutions and low funding.