Empowerment of Adolescent Girls: Education, Health, and Delayed Marriage

Despite considerable emphasis on improving female education and discouraging early marriage, adolescent girls in Bangladesh have a high drop-out rate and almost two-thirds marry before the legal age of 18 (DHS 2011). Those who marry young have less education, higher fertility, poorer health, more restricted mobility, and more unequal relations within the household, all of which are important constraints to labor market productivity and entrepreneurial success.

This research follows a large sample of girls from 460 communities in rural Bangladesh who were exposed to a large-scale empowerment program run by Save the Children. Beginning in 2007, girls in randomly selected communities received social competency, financial literacy and livelihood training designed to help them negotiate for their own needs and provide the basis for successful future economic empowerment. Others received a non-cash incentive to delay marriage until age 18, with the potential to significantly change marriage outcomes, including decision-making power dynamics between women, their husbands and in-laws. A final group received a combination of the incentive and empowerment program.

This study follows these girls as they transition into adulthood and examines the long-run impact of delaying marriage, increasing schooling attainment and adolescent empowerment on adult outcomes such as fertility, maternal and child health, and labor market participation.