Negotiating entry into marriage: Strategies of Ghanaian women in ‘marriage-like’ partnerships

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.