Women's Perception of a Sad Married Life and Higher Marital Instability: How Does Children's Gender Matter? A Perspective from Rural Haryana, India

Abstract

Earlier studies showed that the presence of a son in the family consistently decreases the likelihood of marital instability. We investigated the determinants of a perceived sad married life and high marital instability by analyzing data from an in-depth interview of 329 women in an ethnographic survey conducted in five villages of Haryana state of India during the year 2003. Our study provides empirical evidence of an association between children's gender and women's perception of their married life as sad in rural India.

Keywords::

• Perceptions of married life
• marital instability
• daughters
• sons
• women
• India

NOTE

Notes

1. Child gender ratio defined here is the number of male children per 100 female children below the age of 7.