edited by Joanna Davidson and Dinah Hannaford
contributions by Melanie A. Medeiros, Carla Freeman, Akiko Takeyama, Brady G'Sell, Carla Jones, Joanna Davidson, Dinah Hannaford, Julia Pauli, Jacqueline Solway, Sarah Lamb, Laura C. Nelson and Kimberly Walters
Rutgers University Press, 2023
Cloth: 978-1-9788-3011-0 | Paper: 978-1-9788-3010-3 | eISBN: 978-1-9788-3012-7 (ePub) | eISBN: 978-1-9788-3013-4 (PDF)
Library of Congress Classification HQ800.2.O68 2023
Dewey Decimal Classification 306.8153

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Women around the world are opting out of marriage. Through nuanced ethnographic accounts of the ways that women are moving the needle on marital norms and practices, Opting Out reveals the conditions that make this widespread phenomenon possible in places where marriage has long been obligatory. Each chapter invites readers into the lives of particular women and the changing circumstances in which these lives unfold - sometimes painfully, sometimes humorously, and always unexpectedly. Taken together, the essays in this volume prompt the following questions: Why is marriage so consistently disappointing for women? When the rewards of economic stability and the social status that marriage confers are troubled, does marriage offer women anything compelling at all? Across diverse geographic contexts in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, this book offers sensitive and powerful portrayals of women as they escape or reshape marriage into a more rewarding arrangement.