WOMEN’S AGE AT FIRST MARRIAGE AND LONG-TERM ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT IN EGYPT
Open accessAbstract
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 calls on nations to promote gender equality and to empower women and girls. SDG5 also recognizes the value of women's economic empowerment, entailing equal rights to economic resources and full participation at all levels in economic decisions. Also according to SDG5, eliminating harmful practices-such as child marriage before age 18-is a prerequisite for women's economic empowerment. Using national data for 4,129 married women 15-43 years who took part in the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS 1998-2012), we performed autoregressive, cross-lagged panel analyses to assess whether women's first marriage in adulthood (at 18 years or older, as reported in 2006), was positively associated with their long-term post-marital economic empowerment, measured as their engagement in market work and latent family economic agency in 2012. Women's first marriage in adulthood had positive unadjusted associations with their market work and family economic agency in 2012. These associations persisted after accounting for market work and family economic agency in 2006, pre-marital resources for empowerment, and cumulative fertility. Policies to discourage child marriage may show promise to enhance women's long-term post-marital economic empowerment.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Our future: a Lancet commission on adolescent health and wellbeing
Patton, G. C., Sawyer, S. M., Santelli, J. S., Ross, D. A., Afifi, R., Allen, N. B., Arora, M., Azzopardi, P., Baldwin, W., Bonell, C., et al. (2016) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(16)00579-1 · Cited by 3,785 · see citing works
KANDIYOTI, D. (1988) · Gender & Society · doi:10.1177/089124388002003004 · Cited by 3,081 · see citing works
Adachi, P., & Willoughby, T. (2015) · European Journal of Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1080/17405629.2014.963549 · Cited by 448 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 53
- Al-Qudsi SS 1998 Labour participation of Arab women: estimates of the fertility to labour supply link Applied Economics 30 7 931 941 10.1080/000368498325363 · DOI
- Amin S Al-Bassusi NH 2004 Education, wage work, and marriage: Perspectives of Egyptian working women Journal of Marriage and Family 66 1287 1299
- Anker R 1983 Female labor-force participation in developing countries - A critique of current definitions and data-collection methds International Labor Review 122 6 709 723 12266775
- Anker R Anker M 1989 Measuring the female labor force in Egypt International Labor Review 128 4 511 520
- Assaad R 2009 The Egyptian labor market revisited Cairo, Egypt American University in Cairo Press
- Assaad R El-Hamidi F 2001 Is all work the same? A comparison of the determinants of female participation and hours of work in various employment states in Egypt Amsterdam Elsevier Science
- Assaad R El-Hamidi F 2009 Women in the Egyptian labor market: An analysis of developments, 1988–2006 Cairo, Egypt The American University in Cairo Press
- Assaad R Hendy R Yassine C 2014 Gender and the Jordanian labor market Assaad R The Jordanian labour market in the new millennium 105 143 Oxford, UK Oxford University Press
- Assaad R Roushdy R 2013 The Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey: Introducing the 2012 round IZA Journal of Labor & Development 2 8 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/2193-9020-2-8 · DOI
- Blossfeld HP Huinink J 1991 Human capital investments or norms of role transition? How women’s schooling and career affect the process of family formation American Journal of Sociology 97 1 143 168
- Blossfeld HP Jaenichen U 1992 Educational expansion and changes in women’s entry into marriage and motherhood in the Federal Republic of Germany Journal of Marriage and Family 54 2 302 315
- Bollen KA 1989 Structural equations with latent variables New York John Wiley & Sons
- Cheong YF Yount KM Crandall A 2017 Longitudinal measurement invariance of the women’s agency scale Bulletin of Sociological Methodology 134 1 24 36
- Crandall A Cheong YF Yount KM nd Age at First Marriage and Women’s Economic Empowerment in Egypt under review PMC5798478 29422706
- Crandall A VanderEnde K Cheong YF Yount KM 2016 Women’s age at first marriage and postmarital agency in Egypt Social Science Research 5 148 160 26973037
- Dixon-Mueller R 2008 How young is “too young”? Comparative perspectives on adolescent sexual, marital, and reproductive transitions Studies in Family Planning 39 4 247 262 19248713
- Donahoe DA 1999 Measuring women’s work in developing countries Population and Development Review 25 3 543 576
- Eltigani EE 2000 Changes in family-building patterns in Egypt and Morocco: A comparative analysis International Family Planning Perspectives 26 2 73 78 10.2307/2648270 · DOI
- Fargues P 2005 Women in Arab countries: Challenging the patriarchal system? Reproductive Health Matters 13 25 43 48 16035596
- Field E Ambrus A 2008 Early marriage, age of menarche, and female schooling attainment in Bangladesh Journal of Political Economy 116 5 881 930
- Hango D Le Bourdais C 2007 Early union formation in Canada: Links with education European Journal of Population 23 3–4 339 368
- Hendy R 2015 Women’s participation in the Egyptian labor market Assaad R Krafft C The Egyptian Labor Market in an Era of Revolution 147 161 Oxford, UK Oxford University Press
- Hijab N 1988 Womanpower: The Arab debate on women at work Cambridge Cambridge University Press
- Hirschman C 1985 Premarital socioeconomic roles and the timing of family formation: A comparative study of five Asian societies Demography 22 1 35 59 4038948
- Hogan JW Lancaster T 2004 Instrumental variables and inverse probability weighting for causal inference from longitudinal observational studies Statistical Methods in Medical Research 13 1 17 48 14746439
- Hoodfar H 1997 Between marriage and the market: Intimate politics and survival in Cairo Berkeley, CA University of California Press
- Inhorn MC 1994 Quest for conception: Gender, infertility, and Egyptian medical traditions Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press
- Inhorn MC 1996 Infertility and patriarchy: The cultural politics of gender and family life in Egypt Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press
- Jöreskog KG Goldberger AS 1975 Estimation of a model with multiple indicators and multiple causes of a single latent variable Journal of the American Statistical Association 70 631 639
- Kabeer N 2011 Between affiliation and autonomy: Navigating pathways of women’s empowerment and gender justice in Rural Bangladesh Development and Change 42 2 499 528 21898946
- Kabeer N Huq L 2010 The power of relationships: Love and solidarity in a landless women’s organisation in Rural Bangladesh IDS Bulletin 41 79 87
- Langsten R Salem R 2008 Two approaches to measuring women’s work in developing countries: A comparison of survey data from Egypt Population and Development Review 34 2 283 305
- Lee-Rife S 2010 Women’s empowerment and reproductive experiences over the life-course Social Sciences and Medicine 71 3 634 642 20621752
- Mayer LS 1986 On cross-lagged panel models with serially correlated errors Journal of Business & Economic Statistics 4 3 347 357
- Mensch BS Ibrahim BL Lee SM El-Gibaly O 2003 Gender-role attitudes among Egyptian adolescents Studies in Family Planning 34 8 18 12772442
- Moghadam V 2000 Economic restructuring and the gender contract: a case study of Jordan Marchand MH Runyan AS Gender and global restructuring: Sightings, sites and resistances 2 104 128 London & New York Routledge
- Moghadam V 2001 Women, work and economic restructuring: A regional overview 4 Amsterdam Elsevier Science
- Muthén B 1983 Latent variable structural equation modeling with categorical data Journal of Econometrics 22 1–2 43 65
- Nobles J Buttenheim A 2008 Marriage and socioeconomic change in contemporary Indonesia Journal of Marriage and Family 70 904 918 26336321 PMC4553690
- Papps I 1992 Women, work, and well-being in the Middle East: An outline of the relevant literature The Journal of Development Studies 28 4 595 615
- Rashad H Osman M 2003 Nuptiality in Arab countries: Changes and implications Hopkins Nicholas The new Arab family 20 50 Cairo The American University in Cairo Press
- Salem R VanderEnde K Cheong YF Miedema S Yount KM nd Measurement of Women’s Agency in Rural Egypt under review
- Santhya KG Ram U Acharya R Jejeebhoy SJ Ram F Singh A 2010 Associations between early marriage and young women’s marital and reproductive health outcomes: Evidence from India International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 36 3 132 139 10.2307/20775350 20880798 · DOI
- Spierings N Smits J Verloo M 2010 Micro- and macrolevel determinants of women’s employment in six Arab countries Journal of Marriage and Family 72 1391 1407
- Taylor G Pereznieto P 2014 Review of evaluation approaches and methods used by interventions on women and girls’ economic empowerment London, UK Overseas Development Institute
- Thornton A Axinn W Teachman J 1995 The influence of school enrollment and accumulation on cohabitation and marriage in early adulthood American Sociological Review 60 5 762 774
- Weinreb AA 2008 Characteristics of women in consanguineous marriages in Egypt, 1988–2000 European Journal of Population 24 2 185 210
- Yabiku S 2005 The effect of non-family experiences on age of marriage in a setting of rapid social change Population Studies 59 3 339 354 16249154
- Yount KM 2005a The patriarchal bargain and intergenerational coresidence in Egypt The Sociological Quarterly 46 137 164
- Yount KM 2005b Women’s family power and gender preference in Minya, Egypt Journal of Marriage and Family 67 410 428
- Yount KM Dijkerman S Zureick-Brown S VanderEnde K 2014 Women’s empowerment and their generalized anxiety in Egypt Social Science & Medicine 106 185 193 24576646
- Yount KM VanderEnde KE Dodell S Cheong YF 2016 Measurement of women’s agency in Egypt: A national validation study Social Indicators Research 128 3 1171 1192 27597801 PMC5010232
- Yount KM Zureick-Brown S Salem R 2014 Intimate partner violence and women’s economic and non-economic activities in Minya, Egypt Demography 51 3 1069 1099 24659089
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Gelchu, S., & Wirtu, D. (2025) · Ethiopian Journal of Reproductive Health · doi:10.69614/ejrh.v17i01.846
- Authors
- Yount, K. M., Crandall, A., & Cheong, Y. F.
- Affiliations
- Emory University (US)
- Brigham Young University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Yount, Kathryn M.
- Venue
- World Development
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-02
- Volume
- 102
- Pages
- 124-134
- ISSN
- 0305-750X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5798478
- OpenAlex
- W2765402990
- Cited by
- 100
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 13.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- World Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Marriage and Family Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Keywords
- age at marriage, women's economic empowerment, early marriage, market work, gender equality, Sustainable Development Goal 5, Egypt, fertility, married women
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
