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This chapter explores the ideas of marriage in the minds of young adults. The vast majority of them wish to get married, yet the institution itself seems disconnected not only from where they are in their lives, but also where many of them want to go. Marriage becomes a future event that will somehow happen someday in the scripted manner in which they conceive of it. In the present, therefore, they remain cautious about it. Those must wait for the right person — not just any sexual partner — or until they’re ready to “settle down” and marry. Many young adults now perceive their 20s as the time to extend your adolescence, enjoy yourself, and try on different identities and relationships before getting serious. The chapter also explores the prevalence of “early” marriage as well as divorce, and discusses the increasing frequency of cohabitation.

This chapter offers a social and demographic analysis of the large families who claimed pronatalist tax exemptions in Old Regime France between 1666 and 1760. Samples suggest that recipients were mostly members of urban middling groups including craftsmen and professionals. Demographically, their high fertility was the result of early, long‐lasting marriages and the employment of wetnurses. In social, economic and demographic terms, these families do not seem strikingly different from the French urban households who were beginning to adopt contraceptive practices during the same era. The chapter also reviews contemporary religious sources that not only forbade contraception, but that endowed marriage and prolific reproduction with positive spiritual value. It concludes with a brief study of the strategies some of the large families used to pass on assets and preserve harmony among their numerous progeny.

This chapter discusses the extent of child marriage practices in Vedic and classical Hindu traditions and concentrates on early marriages as a socio-legal problem. It discusses important evidence about how the problem may have gone up during medieval times and even under the British rule. The chapter also shows that since the practice of child marriage has declined today, it could be said that child marriages no longer constitute a grave problem.

Many issues disproportionately affect girls. Sex-selective abortion and infanticide have created a gap of 60 million “missing” females. The cultural context of Female Genital Cutting and efforts to eradicate its usage are analyzed. Limits on girls’ education are reviewed from Chapter Seven. The risks created by early marriage including fistulas, as well as limiting educational opportunities and future economic earnings are discussed.

Moving beyond the ABC prevention strategies addressed in Chapter 5, this chapter describes four alternative prevention strategies that are often overlooked by public health experts but that offer important insights into how people and communities are responding to the epidemic: 1) careful partner selection and early marriage, promoted as a way of channeling young adults into “safe” sexual relationships as soon as possible; 2) divorcing a partner who may be putting his/her spouse at risk; 3) condemning materialistic aspirations which lure people into transactional sex; 4) directives to abstain from alcohol use, seen to compromise decision-making and trigger risky sexual behavior. Religion and religious leaders play a role in each of these responses.

The chapter summarizes the findings of the comparative and country-specific studies included in the book. In relation to the East-West binary, the EAP findings confirm the previous picture of general differences in marriage pattern and family system. However, when studied at the individual-level, great similarity in human behavior across study populations was found. When comparing ages at first birth instead of age at first marriage, the East-West divide diminishes considerably. Also, some potential determinants of marriage behavior like sex, age, or duration of widowhood influenced marriage chances in the same way, while others like co-resident kin or socioeconomic status indicated similarity in behavior given the differences in family system. In relation to marriage as the prime mechanism of the Malthus model, results give little support. In the European locations there was no marriage response to fluctuation in food prices in the lower socioeconomic status groups, and male marriage candidates from more prosperous families married earlier in all study populations.

The chapter introduces the theme of the book: pre-industrial marriage in Europe and Asia. The book aims to challenging the rhetoric of an East-West dichotomy in marriage patterns and mechanisms between Asia (China) and Europe (England). In Europe, late marriages, high celibacy rates, preventive checks, individualism – in Asia, early marriages, universal marriage, positive checks, parental authority (e.g. Malthus, Hajnal, Wrigley/Schofield, Macfarlane, Wolf, Skinner). The chapter claims that the East-West binary, based on studies of social norms and aggregate statistics implies a picture that is too simplistic. It argues for the EAP approach to the study of pre-industrial marriage: comparison of local populations in Asia (China, Japan) and Europe (Belgium, Italy, Sweden) for which individual-level longitudinal data are available, using the same models and methods of analysis (presented in chapters 2 and 3).

This chapter examines changes in marriage and fertility among Jordanians and Syrian refugees in Jordan. It finds considerable continuity in marriage practices among Jordanians from 2010 to 2016. Jordanians witnessed very modest increases in median age at first marriage. Education is the main factor associated with later ages at marriage and first birth among women. The cost of marriage among Jordanians has declined since 2010 and is unlikely to have contributed to trends in marriage age. Despite the small increase in age at first marriage, fertility declined among Jordanians from a total fertility rate of 3.9 in 2010 to 3.3 in 2016. Compared to the Jordanians, Syrian refugees experienced an earlier transition to marriage and a higher total fertility rate of 4.4 in 2016. The marriage and fertility patterns of Syrian refugees point to high selection on factors associated with earlier marriage and higher fertility.

This chapter outlines the practice of and campaign against FGM and early marriage in Kenya, among the Maasai and Samburu, and in the three case study communities. It discusses the scope of the two practices and the nature of the local norms supporting them, as well as observed changes. It also considers the history and range of activism against the practices, and the activities of the Kenyan government. The chapter draws on quantitative data from Kenya’s Demographic and Health Surveys and from the author’s own original survey, as well as qualitative data from the Author’s interviews and from a range of primary and secondary documents.

The introduction asks how individuals and communities respond to transnational activism that pits international norms against local norms. It highlights the theoretical significance of research on norm change among nonstate actors and the substantive significance of research on the practices of female genital mutilation (FGM) and early marriage. In addition, this chapter provides an overview of the argument and describes and justifies the research design (including issue selection, case selection, and research methods). It defines keyterms—norms, FGM, early marriage—and discusses conceptual and practical issues associated with these definitions. It further describes variation in the practice of FGM and early marriage worldwide, as well as the evolution of transnational activism against them.

This chapter presents the central theoretical framework for understanding local-level norm change in response to a conflict between international and local norms. It disaggregates individual norm change into three discrete activities—attitude change, primary behavioral change, and secondary behavioral and rhetorical change—and establishes the conditions under which each of these changes is most likely to occur. It also identifies factors that influence the extent of exposure to the international normative message. The theory highlights systemic, local, and individual-level sources of variation in both exposure and norm change. It then considers the processes by which international norms diffuse across individuals and through communities, emphasizing both social and temporal dimensions of change.

Chapters 4 through 7 present empirical support for the theory, drawing on both qualitative interview data and original survey data. Chapter 4 focuses on awareness of international norms. It shows that there have been comparable levels of transnational activism against FGM and early marriage in the study communities. While the high salience of the international norm against FGM drives up activism by aid-dependent NGOs, the high salience of the local norm supporting the practice drives down activism by other community organizations. The low salience of both the international and local norms surrounding early marriage drives down activism by aid-dependent NGOs but creates space for activism by actors and organizations that are financially independent. However, the level of activism against both practices varies by community—awareness of the international norms against FGM and early marriage is most likely when communities, and individuals within communities, are accessible to NGOs and other activists.

This chapter considers the barriers to individual behavior change and the diffusion of behavior change through communities. It shows that because of the relatively low salience of the local norm supporting early marriage, individual behavior change closely tracks attitude change. However, the high salience of the local norm supporting FGM means that individual behavior change lags significantly behind attitude change. Because of FGM’s high local salience, behavior change is most likely to occur where individuals are able to somehow mitigate the high barriers to defection—the chapter demonstrates that exposure to noncircumcising ethnic groups is associated with individual behavior change in communities that have experienced minimal norm change, and that elite opposition to FGM is associated with individual behavior change in communities that are at both early and advanced stages of transition.

According to the United Nations, child marriage often is a result of gender bias and discrimination by families that choose boys over girls to pursue education. Advocates argue that early marriage creates a permanent end to a girl’s childhood more often than a boy’s childhood because of early forced sexual encounters, early pregnancy, and premature exit from school to attend to household chores for the new husband. Child marriages have consistently been linked with early, more frequent, and more unwanted pregnancies compared with adult marriages in developing countries. Women married as children often experience significantly greater life stressors and higher rates of suicidal thoughts and attempts than do women married as adults. Despite what is known globally about child marriage, the United States continues to legally allow the practice. This chapter explores the limited information on American child brides and discusses policy and practice implications of this phenomenon.

This chapter concludes by reviewing the theory and the central findings from the research conducted in the three Kenyan case study communities. It also places the theory in a broader context by applying it to FGM and early marriage cross-nationally and by applying it to two additional issues—girl-child education and dowry. It discusses policy implications for international donors and on-the-ground activists, and outlines theoretical implications for literatures on international norm promotion; the politics of culture, tradition, and modernity; and gender violence. Finally, the conclusion explores potential avenues for further research, including new cases, alternative methodological strategies, and theoretical extensions.

This chapter focuses on rhetorical and secondary behavioral change. It finds that many individuals take steps to misrepresent or hide their true attitudes and behavior with respect to FGM and early marriage, and that they are motivated to do this by both reputational and material considerations. The survey experiment shows that individuals are willing to make false rhetorical commitments to international norms when they encounter an international audience, and the qualitative interviews show a propensity both for rhetorical misrepresentation to international activists and for actively hiding local norm compliance from local activists and authorities. However, these types of activities occur primarily in communities that have experienced significant exposure to the relevant international norms.

This chapter focuses on the issue of practical implementation of child rights. There are various hindrances in this regard. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is a huge obstacle in the child's right to survival and development. Institutionalization appears to be the rule rather than an exception. Demolitions and forced evictions from homes disrupt the social structure of a child's life to survival. Early marriages are a form of child sexual abuse and a violation of a child's freedom to enjoy childhood. The Indian legal system needs much development to assure the rights of the child. Rehabilitation is crucial to children rescued from prostitution. The Convention on the Rights of the Child can be employed by public advocates to force the government to take action on child issues. Good governance has a central role to play in ensuring that children are at the centre of the development agenda that guides policy decisions and budgetary allocations as well as monitors progress.

This chapter addresses attitude change in response to transnational activism against FGM and early marriage. It finds that individual attitude change is most likely to occur when the international normative message people receive is not only frequent but also of high quality, and that aid-dependent NGOs are less likely to provide such a high-quality message. While message quality is difficult to operationalize, the chapter is able to show that individuals with a strong grasp of the content of the international norms—that is, knowledge of the health and human rights consequences of FGM and early marriage—are more likely to express opposition to the two practices. It also shows that, for any given level of activism, individuals are less likely to change their attitudes about FGM than about early marriage, because of FGM’s higher local salience.