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Marital “Mismatch” from Changes in Women’s Litigant Rights

Efobi, Uchenna (2024) Marital “Mismatch” from Changes in Women’s Litigant Rights. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 72 . Article Number 2. ISSN 0013-0079. (doi:10.1086/721030) (Access to this publication is currently restricted. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:104640)

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Abstract

This paper examines the effect of a change in a legal regime to reinstate the adjudication of criminal matters to Islamic courts and documents the effect of the change on the marital matches of women. This change reduces the litigant rights of women in cases of illicit sexual behavior and extramarital relations. Combining three rounds of a nationally representative survey in Nigeria, I show that a woman affected by the legal reform is 29.2 percentage points more likely to be married to a man who earns less than she does and significantly more likely to be married to an older man. Regarding the educational attainment of the spouse, I show that an affected woman is 21.5 percentage points less likely to be married to a spouse who has higher educational attainment. Finally, a woman affected by the reform enforcement is 7.6 percentage points less likely to report that she is involved in any four intrahousehold decisions and less likely to be involved in decision-making about spending her spouse’s earnings. Some of these effects are seen only in nonmatrilineal communities, and changes in the woman’s attitude toward male dominance and outside marriage utility are other channels of effect.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1086/721030
Subjects: H Social Sciences
H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Women
H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Women > HQ1236 Women and the state. Women's rights. Women's political activity
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research > Personal Social Services Research Unit
Funders: University of Kent (https://ror.org/00xkeyj56)
Depositing User: Uchenna Efobi
Date Deposited: 17 Jan 2024 09:59 UTC
Last Modified: 23 Jan 2024 15:15 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/104640 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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