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Marriage market in urban settings in Egypt. Zeinab Khadr. Marriage Market. The concept of marriage market can be traced to Adam smith who argued that poverty can discourage marriage. Marriage possesses the main traits of a market.
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Marriage market in urban settings in Egypt ZeinabKhadr
Marriage Market • The concept of marriage market can be traced to Adam smith who argued that poverty can discourage marriage. • Marriage possesses the main traits of a market. • Marriage is voluntary act and encompasses a competition among potential spouses who seek to identify the best mates who can maximize their utility given the market and their own constraints. • Within this market, researchers are mainly concerned with • The timing of marriage, in particular the anomalies in this timing whether early or delayed marriages. • Individuals who are squeezed out of this market. • Forces that regulate both.
Empirical examination of the forces within the marriage market was mainly divided into four types of studies. The first Individual traits It examines individuals marriageability • Studies on the determinants of first age at marriage lie in the core of this type of studies. • Mainly concerned with women, • Strong and significant influence of education, employment status, the family background and urbanization on women’s age at first marriage • This type of studies was built on the assumption that there is an unlimited supply of potential suitors in the market.
Expansion • The availability of spouses through simple measures as the ratio of men to women. • Impact of the cultural context, particularly in countries where cultural context can impose strong implications on the marriage market • Example • Highly gender segregated societies : men’s economic prospects defines marriage timing for women and men • Societies in which women’s economic roles start to resemble that of men: other factors such adaptation to women’s aspiration as well as the value of marriage itself might set the timing of marriage.
The second Social and institutional forces Societal factor shaping marriageability of individuals • This type of studied was expanded to incorporate macro measures of men “availability” as well as “quality” and female economic independence and urbanization and it relationship to the marriage market • EX. Marriage market that is characterized by a high percentage of women who are employed decreases men’s probability to marry. • Marriage market that contain s high percentage of economically advantage men, increases the chance of marriage for both men and women • Comprehensive analysis of marriage should consider the cultural context within which marriage is embedded.
The third Marriage squeeze and mating gradient • Mating gradient • men tend to marry women of the same stature or less • women tend to marry men of the same stature or higher. • increase status among men can widen their pool of eligible women • increase status of women narrows their pool of eligible men and hence lead to an exacerbation of the female marriage squeeze
The Fourth Unconventional entry to Marriage • Revival of the old match making individuals • Marriage offices/brokers • Social media
Marriage market in Egypt • Individual attributes • Cost of marriage and the economics of marriage • Contextual factors Rashad(2013) summarized the above literature in her identification of the main impediments of marriage in the Arab region in the following forces • Financial difficulties (High unemployment and high cost of living and securing independent household) • Affordability of marriage • Marriageable men • Women’s expectation regard marriageable men • Cultural norms regarding gender dynamics
Goals In general, this proposal aims • Contributing to the evidence base on the main structural and behavioral forces underlying both early and delayed marriages, their relative contribution and interrelations among the youth in urban settings. • Informing development programming, community level interventions as well as the national efforts for sustaining marriage formation within the appropriate age for both young women and men.
The program activities include three main components • In depth analysis of secondary data. • Empirical study. • Dissemination of the research outcome
Empirical study. • The survey will implement both the quantitative and qualitative data gathering approaches. • For the Qualitative data : • Focus group discussions • 12 focus group discussions,4 in each type of neighborhoods, equally divided by age (18-29 years, 30--35 years) and by gender. • In-depth interviews • Marriage brokerage offices and “modern match makers” • For the Quantitative data • A survey of 4500 people • 3300 young people 18-35years, • 1200 parents • A full analysis of both focus group discussions and the survey data will be carried out.
