The Gendered Interpretation of Child Marriage: A Niger Case Study

<p>This paper seeks to answer the question, what is the primary factor driving child marriage? I explore the literature in several scholarly articles that explain why the harmful, traditional practice of child marriage is an issue that predominantly affects girls globally. I also utilize the feminist theory of international relations to support my analysis of child marriage as a gender issue. Incorporating evidence from annual international reports, scholarly articles, and mixed methods studies, this paper examines a case study of Niger, where child marriage affects more than half the population of girls under the age of 18. In studying Niger, I use a a gendered analysis to examine the drivers of child marriage such as cultural practices/ societal norms, religious beliefs, educational gaps, and poverty to argue that child marriage must be studied through a gendered perspective rather than an economic one to achieve viable international policy implications. Concluding this paper, it is proven that Nigerien girls’ are married young more so due to their gender.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of International Affairs (M.I.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

International Relations

Year dc:date.available

2022

Author dc:creator

• Safi, Melissa

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bruce Cronin
• Jean Krasno

• child bride
• child marriage
• Niger
• gender
• social norms
• Human Rights Law
• International Law
• International Relations
• Law and Gender
• Other Political Science
• Political Theory
• Social Justice

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/1112

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:cc_etds_theses-2117