Marginalization of African single mothers in the marriage market: Evidence from Cameroon

Abstract

Despite a growing concern over the health and socio-economic consequences of premarital fertility in Africa, few studies have explored the effect of premarital birth on the subsequent likelihood of getting married. While some ethnographic studies have suggested that unmarried African women sometimes use childbearing as a strategy to favour or accelerate transition to marriage, this analysis of the 1991 Cameroon Demographic and Health Survey shows that, overall, premarital childbearing has a strong and negative effect on a young woman's chances of first marriage. The results also reveal, however, that the effect of premarital childbearing on subsequent union varies significantly according to duration in single motherhood. While having a premarital birth makes marriage more likely in the short run, it significantly jeopardises the marriage chances of single women in the long run.