Negotiating entry into marriage: Strategies of Ghanaian women in ‘marriage-like’ partnerships
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Date
2019-06
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Ghana Social Science Journal
Abstract
Scholars have identified various ways in which people negotiate entry into
marriage, including child betrothal, arranged marriage, forced marriage,
self-choice marriage and remarriage. This paper will focus on how couples
in already ‘marriage-like’ arrangements or ‘consensual unions’ negotiate
the conversion of their relationships to ‘marriage proper’. Data for this
paper comes from in-depth interviews with fourteen couples in consensual
unions in urban Accra, Ghana. The interviews revealed that in response to
cultural, social and religious influences, women, more than men, are likely
to devise various strategies to convert their consensual unions into
‘marriage proper’. Their partners, on the other hand, often assume a
laidback attitude towards the union. However, in most cases the women’s
strategies did not produce the desired outcome.
Description
Ghana Social Science Journal, 16(1), 54-70
Keywords
marriage-like partnership, consensual unions, mate selection, wifely-duties, sexual services