The causal effect of early marriage on women’s bargaining power: Evidence from Bangladesh

Summary & Objectives

The study aimed to estimate the causal effect of age at marriage on women’s bargaining power in rural Bangladesh. It sought to measure how delaying marriage affects women’s empowerment in the productive sphere, using the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, and in the domestic sphere, using indicators of mobility, fertility decisions, work, control over income and household expenditures. It also aimed to identify pathways through which early marriage constrains women’s agency, focusing on education, paid work and assets brought into marriage.

Findings

The analysis shows that later marriage significantly strengthens women’s bargaining power. A one-year delay in marriage increases women’s empowerment score in agriculture and raises the probability that they are classified as empowered, while slightly narrowing the empowerment gap with men in the same household. Women who marry later are more likely to have autonomy in agricultural production, own and have rights in assets, control household income and feel able to speak in public.

Delayed marriage also improves agency in the domestic sphere: it is associated with greater freedom of movement, more say in using contraception, higher likelihood of deciding to work outside the home and greater control over earnings and key household expenditures on food, housing, education, clothing and health care. These effects appear to operate through higher educational attainment, better chances of working for pay and bringing more assets into marriage among women who marry later.

Recommendations

The authors recommend that efforts to end child marriage be framed not only as a protection objective but also as a central strategy to enhance women’s bargaining power and intrahousehold agency. Policies should prioritise delaying age at first marriage by expanding girls’ access to quality education, supporting their entry into paid work and enabling them to accumulate assets before marriage. Legal and programmatic initiatives to enforce minimum age-of-marriage laws in Bangladesh need to be coupled with investments that relax economic pressures to marry daughters early and that address the gender norms underpinning early marriage. Strengthening these areas can improve women’s decision-making power in both productive and domestic spheres and generate wider gains for household welfare and gender equality.