Post-marital residence and female wellbeing

Post-marital residence norms govern where a married couple resides after marriage: with the husband’s family, the wife’s family, or independently. We study whether these arrangements affect female autonomy and domestic violence outcomes in four Southeast Asian countries—Indonesia, Philippines, Cambo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of population economics 2024-06, Vol.37 (2), p.49, Article 49
Main Authors: Khalil, Umair, Mookerjee, Sulagna, Ray, Arijit
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Autonomy
Childrens health
Decision making
Demography
Deterrence
Domestic violence
Economics
Economics and Finance
Economists
Empowerment
Ethnography
Families & family life
Females
Households
Husbands
Labor Economics
Marriage
Marriage customs
Married couples
Original Paper
Population Economics
Relatives
Residence
Social Policy
Well being
Wives
Women
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Summary:Post-marital residence norms govern where a married couple resides after marriage: with the husband’s family, the wife’s family, or independently. We study whether these arrangements affect female autonomy and domestic violence outcomes in four Southeast Asian countries—Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, and Myanmar—where a sizable proportion of the population practices each type of marital residence. Compared to independently residing families within the same province-country, married women residing with the husband’s family have worse autonomy outcomes, whereas those residing with members of their own natal families fare substantially better. This aligns well with an anthropological understanding of how gendered patterns of influence in a social system might potentially interact with female empowerment. On the other hand, we observe that married women in both types of non-independent households suffer from less frequent domestic abuse compared to women residing independently, likely due to a deterrence effect from the presence of other family members.
ISSN:0933-1433
1432-1475
DOI:10.1007/s00148-024-01025-8