Marital Home Research Articles

Im/mobility as a form of gender-based violence: the case of transnationally abandoned wives in India

Transnational marriage abandonment (TMA) of women is a growing form of violence reported across India and South Asia. The spouse, most commonly a husband, lives and works in a foreign country and exploits the advantages derived from his citizenship or visa status to exercise coercion and control over the immigrating wife. TMA takes different forms, including when a woman is left behind with the in-laws while waiting for the husband to provide visa sponsorship for her migration. Such women are vulnerable to financial precarity, isolation and domestic violence from in-laws, may be dispossessed from their marital home and served with ex parte divorces. Drawing on life-history interviews with 35 ‘never-migrant’ women conducted between 2013 and 2016, and subsequent policy and legal developments in India and the UK, this article seeks to unpack the gendered dimensions of im/mobility within TMA. Women’s immobilisation results from state migration policies, legal obstacles, patriarchal socio-cultural norms and purposive actions by husbands and their families to perpetually defer visa sponsorship and extract labour and/or money from women. Our findings indicate that immobilisation is a key facet of violence against women and legal responses to TMA must utilise a gender-based violence framework that can incorporate immobilised ‘never-migrant’ women.

Enter Your Chambers and Shut Your Doors behind You: Bodily Containment, Proliferation, and the Right to Privacy in American Law and Gothic Horror

ABSTRACT: Landmark legal decisions on privacy and birth control reiterate gendered Cold War logics of containment by positioning the home as the safe container for female sexuality and fertility. Contemporary horror, however, counters this dualistic construction of safe interior–uncontrollable exterior by portraying the boundaries between inside and outside as artificial and porous. Representations of sexual containment, the nuclear family, and the domestic home space in The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963) and Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968) complicate broader cultural and legal conceptions of birth control as a form of protection for the impenetrable marital home.

Queen Victoria through Punjabi Eyes: The Travel Writings of Hardevi

This essay examines two travel narratives written by Hardevi, a woman from Lahore who traveled to London for Queen Victoria's jubilee in 1887. The accounts contain Hardevi's narration of her journey by ship and describe the celebrations. Hardevi showcases the queen's marital home and her conjugal life, seamlessly accommodating them within reformist constructions of a modern, educated, pativrata (conjugally virtuous) Indian woman. Hardevi's encounter with the queen at the heart of the empire opens up a conceptual space of possibilities for a modern, gendered self. This article examines her deployment of a mode of subjectivity that allows her to be, simultaneously, an obedient and fascinated colonial subject of the imperial spectacle and also a citizen-subject who claims the agency of critique.

Marital Philosophy and Home Value among the Annang of Nigeria: An Exploration of Selected Proverbs

Marital philosophies and home values are essential components of all living and progressive societies. They are potentiality used to create an enabling, sustainable and conducive environment and otherwise depending on their constituents and how they are applied on day-to-day interactions. A society devoid of the right marital philosophies may tend towards adopting negative home values that may ruin families, homes and the society at large. There are various factors that are responsible for one’s choices of ideal marital philosophies and home values for sustainable family life and the society. This study therefore examines marital philosophies and home values encapsulated in the linguistically rich Annang proverbs from Akwa-Ibom, Nigeria. MAK Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar (and specifically the interpersonal metafunction) is adopted as our theoretical framework for the data analysis. Data were randomly selected from current Annang proverbs used in daily communicative purposes. This work adopts a qualitative (exploratory) research design; eleven (11) proverbs were randomly selected, presented and analysed. We posit that proverbs are capsules of knowledge that marital philosophies and family values are enveloped. They can, and actually do serve as regulators of behaviours and moral templates upon which marital philosophes and home values are built. With the data of proverbs drawn from Annang cultures and their corresponding English translations, we attempt to demonstrate the relevance of these cultural-linguistic tools in the reformation of character, value re-orientation and social redemption of man and his environment. Keywords: Cultural linguistic tools, Corresponding English translation, marital philosophies, home values, interpersonal functions

Understanding the Meaning and Significance of Family

The individuals, belonging to all communities, categories and socio-economic backgrounds have recognized the meaning and significance of family. The family is regarded as an institution, from where individuals generate information and augment their knowledge and understanding in terms of various types of subjects and concepts. The family members are valuable to individuals in all communities. The individuals within natal as well as marital homes regard their families as important. The main reason being, they are able to contribute efficiently in leading to up-gradation of overall standards of living through obtaining support and assistance from family members. The individuals are able to augment their information in terms of different techniques, which are necessary in promoting enhancement of overall standards of living. Furthermore, putting into operation communication processes in an efficient manner is facilitating in incurring the feelings of pleasure and contentment. Promoting health and well-being, physically and psychologically is regarded as vital for all individuals. Family members are first and foremost individuals, who support in leading to up-gradation of overall health conditions of individuals. Therefore, it is understood on a comprehensive basis that family members contribute efficiently in leading to up-gradation of personality traits and overall standards of living of individuals. The main concepts that are taken into account in this research paper are, understanding the meaning and significance of family, measures to be acknowledged in developing mutual understanding with family members and advantages of developing mutual understanding with family members.

Conservation or deforestation: Households attitudinal analysis of forest resources for sustainable development of the Tain (II) Forest Reserve, Ghana

Forest conservation has recently become a global necessity, capturing considerable attention from scholars and policymakers. However, rampant deforestation remains a significant catalyst for the recent exacerbated climatic repercussions in forest regions. This study examined the perspectives regarding forest conservation and assessed their relationship with household income conditions in Ghana. Primary data were gleaned from two hundred fifty households within five communities around Ghana's Tain (II) forest reserve using a participatory rural assessment approach and interviews with structured questionnaires. The survey considered (i) socio-demographic drivers, (ii) basic family information, and (iii) forest conservation characteristics as hypothetical incentives to promote forest conservation and poverty alleviation. The findings revealed varied perspectives on conservational attitudes in the forest fringe communities. Marital status, education, employment, home size, and other factors influenced opinions in forest conversations. The study suggested the need for tailored ecological compensation and agroforestry practices to reduce deforestation in the Tain (II) Forest reserve area.

Narrating Resistance: Representation of Nineteenth Century Bengali Muslim Women in Akhtar Mahal's Niyantrita

The participation and Muslim women’s contributions of the nineteenth and the early twentieth century in the social reform movements in India have remained largely unexplored. The documented literary history of the period till date furthermore does not accord a reasonable space for Muslim women authors. The present paper attempts to intervene in the context of the gaps throughout recorded history where women, especially Muslim are posited almost overlooked in the discourses of society, religion, and literature. The paper intends to examine how Muslim women are portrayed in the social and religious discourses of India and/ or undivided Bengal, marking their challenges at multiple levels in literary and socio-cultural history. It intends to critically examine the Bengali Muslim writer Akhtar Mahal’s pioneering novella, Niyantrita (1926) that explores Muslim women’s aversion to hierarchical structures of the contemporary Indian society. Begum Akhtar Mahal (1901-1928) was an eminent Muslim writer who continued writing despite the adversities she faced after her early marriage at the age of fourteen. Born in 1901 in an aristocratic and educated family, Akhtar was introduced into an atmosphere that was truly conducive to literary and artistic pursuits, even though there was no question of sending the girls to school or college in the initial decades of the 1900s. But the feudal environment of her in-laws house was absolutely different from her paternal home. Women keen on education or music or art were not appreciated in her marital home. These are the aspects that led her to raise her voice of resistance against patriarchal oppression. Two of her seminal works are Niyantrita and Maran Baran. The Bengali Muslim negotiation with modernity and even with anti-colonial struggles has not been well recorded. Most accounts speak of ‘backwardness’, where the Bengali Muslim ‘renaissance’ takes place about fifty years after the Bengal renaissance. The institutionalized patriarchal setting was held responsible for an “enforced” seclusion. This rendered Muslim women significantly less visible to historical and social analyses than their Indian counterparts. Akhtar Mahal intricately weaves a tapestry of romance entangled with the heart-wrenching realities of forced marriages that often plague Muslim societies. The tale chronicles a life filled with sorrow, delicately narrated in a poignant and mournful fashion. This narrative touches upon the experiences of Muslim women, colonialism, patriarchy, and the echo of resistance.

The epidemiological and medico-legal characteristics of violent deaths and spousal homicides through a population of women autopsied within the Forensic Medicine Department of the University Hospital of Annaba

BackgroundDomestic violence is a real public health problem with considerable consequences, ranging from minor injuries to death. Our study aims to determine the epidemiological and forensic characteristics relating to the violent mortality of women, and more particularly spousal homicide.MethodsTo do this, a double survey was conducted. The first step was descriptive and retrospective, and the second survey was analytical and prospective. This latter step covered the most populous age group of murdered women in Algeria, which is eighteen-year-old and over, and subjected a number of these female victims to a medico-judicial autopsy at the level of the thanatology unit for over four years counting two years for each survey (2017–2018 and 2019–2020). Data were entered and processed using Epi-info6 software.ResultsDuring the initial period of our study, we identified 35 cases of violent deaths involving women and representing a frequency of 5.71% of the thanatological activity.During the second period, 12 spousal homicides were recorded and autopsied, representing a frequency of 1.79% of all forensic deaths in the corresponding study period.The average age of the victims was evaluated at 33 ± 12.91 years, with extremes of 19 to 56 years. The age of the perpetrators of spousal homicide was evaluated at 42 ± 10.76 years with extremes ranging from 30 to 60 years.For victims of violent death and spousal homicide, inactivity was a strongly implicated risk factor, with respective frequencies of (88.57%) and (58.33%). Two-thirds of the persecuted women were completely unknown to the healthcare environment and had never consulted a medical professional. This parameter could be one of the predictive signs of spousal homicide.The marital home was the preferred location for violent deaths and spousal homicides. These crimes occurred variably during the period of marriage and eventually after divorce.As for the modus operandi, the perpetrators use many sharp and spinous weapons, including firearms and blunt objects.ConclusionAutopsy and medico-legal investigations took a decisive interest in the identification of the causes of spousal homicide; indeed, many serious traumatic lesions incompatible with life have been highlighted. We underline the crucial role that healthcare professionals must play in the process of identifying and evaluating potentially risky situations.

Abstract MP16: Status of Cardiovascular Health in US Immigrants Using the AHA’s Life’s Essential 8 Metrics: Prevalence Estimates and Social Determinants From the 2013-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Introduction: The US has the largest immigrant population globally, with a record high ~47 million foreign-born residents in 2022. Immigrants endure social and structural factors that may adversely influence their cardiovascular health (CVH). Hypothesis: Overall and individual metrics of CVH will vary by immigration status (US-born vs. foreign-born) and among foreign-born sub-populations. Methods: The analytic sample included 13,471 adults (19% foreign-born), ages 20-79 y (not pregnant or institutionalized) and free of CVD, from the 2013-2018 NHANES. We calculated the CVH score (range 0-100, low CVH: <50) and component scores, consistent with AHA’s Life’s Essential 8 guidelines. T-tests were used to compare CVH scores by nativity and, among foreign-born individuals, by sex, ethnicity, years in the US, and citizenship. Survey weighted logistic models evaluated social determinants of health (SDOH) in relation to odds of having low CVH. Results: Compared to US-born adults, foreign-born adults had higher overall CVH, diet, nicotine exposure, BMI, and blood pressure scores, but lower physical activity, glucose, and cholesterol scores (p<0.01); there were no differences in sleep health scores (Figure A). Among immigrants, those who were men, Hispanic, and living in the US ≥15y had lower CVH scores (p<0.001); CVH scores did not differ by citizenship (Figure B-E). Scores for individual CVH metrics also varied across immigrant sub-populations. In logistic models, being male, 45+ y, Hispanic, food insecure, or having < college education, depression, or ≥15y in the US was related to 57%-150% higher odds of having low CVH. Marital status, income, health insurance, citizenship, and home ownership were not related to CVH. Conclusions: While US immigrants have higher overall CVH compared to US-born persons, CVH status is complex and varies across immigrant sub-populations. Understanding immigration as a SDOH is essential for effective public health initiatives aimed at improving CVH in the heterogeneous US immigrant population.

The Predicaments of Childless Women in Nigerian Fiction: A Womanist Reading of Flora Nwapa’s One Is Enough and Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives

Using womanist literary criticism, this work has critically analyzed and revealed that women’s worth is tied to their ability to bear children. The study has also examined the plight, predicaments, and abuses of childless women in African culture. The paper has revealed that childless women are verbally abused, physically beaten, psychologically abused, and maltreated. The paper argues that it is unethical and immoral to maltreat childless women for involuntary infertility. The pressures coming from society constitute huge struggles for childless women when they fail to bear children after a couple of times. The emotional turmoil is further compounded by societal pressure. Family members compel the husband to take another wife for the sake of ensuring a continued lineage. In some cultures, these women suffer domestic abuse, and divorce and are even driven out of their marital homes. The plight of childless women is unfathomable in most African societies with regard to how society maltreats these women because of their incapacity of bearing children. Furthermore, the study has revealed that the social pressures and their predicaments have nevertheless become an impetus for these childless women’s self-actualization and self-realization. Hard work and selfreliance become imperative for these childless women if they really yearn for social thriving.

The Effect of Marital Problems on the Education of Children with Special Needs in Buea Municipality.

Purpose: The study investigates the effect of marital problems on Children’s education in the Buea Municipality. Specific objectives of the study included; to examine the effects of lack of communication on children education, to investigate the effect of lack of finance on Children education, to examine the impact of marital violence on children education.
 Methodology: The study was guided by socio-cultural theory by Lev Vygostsky, Ecological theory and Paige’s cognitive development theory. The study adopted the survey research design .Precisely the cross- sectional survey design was used to gather data from various segments of the population using a questionnaire.
 Findings: The findings revealed problem facing children from unstable homes which affects them academically. It further reports that children from marital problem homes perform poorly in school as compared to those with stable marital homes.
 Recommendations: The study recommend that the government should establish workshop and seminars to inculcate knowledge on the importance of parents living in harmony to enhance children well-being and education in Cameroon. Teachers should also have the zeal of empathy to students that is they should go close to students to find out their difficulties.

The intimate subsidies of left-behind women of migrant households in western India

The term ‘left-behind’, often used to describe the wives of male migrants, is implicated in a male centric gaze that moves alongside the man as he migrates for work (often to cities), while the ‘left-behind’ women and rural economy recede into an obscure background as ‘dependents’ from his remittances. Locating our enquiry in the Adivasi (tribal), migrant households of southern Rajasthan in western India, we argue that this simplistic view betrays the complex exchanges that occur between the two ends of geographically split migrant households. We put forth a notion of ‘intimate subsidies’ to draw attention to these exchanges and the concealed modes through which the capitalist economy transfers scarcity, insecurity, illness and injury onto the migrant household, leaving it to be neutralized by the intimate labour of its women members. The ruthless commodification of Adivasi male migrants in India is well-documented. Here, we delve into its corollary – the parallel commodification of their wives’ labour as they renew, rescue and rehabilitate their marital homes from the assaults of a corrosive migration regime. We find that the intimate subsidies provided by migrants’ wives are camouflaged as age-old acts of marital love and duty, and are uncompromisingly demanded of them by patriarchal structures and relations. They are exacerbated by the socio-economic destabilization that Adivasi communities have experienced through colonial and post-colonial accumulation, while being and are instrumentalized by the husband’s capitalist employers in contemporary migration economy. The latter, however, remain unimplicated for extracting such subsidies – enjoying impunity by maintaining a strict separation from the social reproduction of migrant households.

Marital Home. Law, Divorce and Intimate Violence in Nineteenth Century

This article analyzes the divorce cases processed in Chile in the 19th century during the period in which the foundations of the republican legal order were laid. Its objective is to identify the specific meanings of home as a private space and family environment in relation to the fundamental rights of men and women united in marriage. In this line, this paper investigates the tensions between these rights and the prerogatives of the husband – family man – in the liberal context and the secularization of marriage. Methodologically, divorce lawsuits allow us to immerse ourselves in marital homes given that they comprise several issues that include women’s rights, the defense of marital power, the voices of jurists and judges regarding marriage, as well as the understanding of power in the family, its abuse, and the intervention power of the State in said circumstances. This analysis reveals that divorce was a female protection resource against the mistreatment suffered at the hands of their husbands; this paper sustains that while the male prerogative to correct women was discredited, the notion of home as an inviolable space was a powerful defense for exercising marital power. Paradoxically, this discourse, although it could have overshadowed female rights, also acquired a positive meaning as a space from which to invoke rights and demand public action

Domestic Violence Current Legal Status: Psychiatric Evaluation of Victims and Offenders.

Domestic Violence Current Legal Status: Psychiatric Evaluation of Victims and Offenders.

Embracing risky refuge: women, land laws and livelihood vulnerabilities in rural Kenya

There has been a growing interest in laws governing resources particularly land in reference to gender in Africa. Law reforms in relation to land have produced potentially useful regulations and espoused egalitarian land rights. However, the backdrop to these reforms contains a scene of land disputes, resistance to laws, violence against women and poor enforcement leading to injustices to women with a pervasive effect on families in vulnerable communities. Using focused ethnographic research methods, the writer investigated women's land rights between November 2015 and August 2016. In-depth interviews, focus group discussions, review of archival records and observations were utilised. The study found that in contexts of prolonged livelihood vulnerabilities, as in the case of the Luo people of south-western Kenya, women seeking refuge from livelihood difficulties employ two strategies to anchor their security. They migrate from marital homes to fishing villages and also lay claim to marital land, which is held by men according to customary laws. These strategies produce social dilemmas and risky manoeuvering. Statutory land laws that are enacted to mitigate land related conflicts undermine the existing customary land laws that advantage men. Therefore, women's land claims, and statutory land laws that espouse equality in land ownership, destabilise men's sense of masculinity. By drawing on the experiences of women, I show the intersection between land laws, enduring injustices and gender relations in a context of strained livelihoods.

Estimating the late-life effects of social and emotional skills in childhood using midlife mediators

Social and emotional skills are known to affect health and non-health outcomes, but there is limited evidence on whether these skills in childhood affect late life outcomes because of a shortage of long-running datasets containing this information. We develop a three-stage procedure and use it to estimate the effect of childhood social and emotional skills on health and labour market outcomes in late-life. This procedure makes use of mediators in midlife which are shown to be predicted by childhood skills in one dataset and to predict late-life outcomes in another dataset. We use this method to combine estimates from the National Child Development Survey and the British Household Panel Survey. We find that childhood skills predict marital status, education, home ownership, income and health at age 46 years and these midlife variables predict levels of quality-adjusted life years and labour income accumulated by age 63 years. The combined estimates suggest a standard deviation increase in average Bristol Social Adjustment Guide total score at ages 7 and 11 is associated with 4.2% (standard error = 0.6%) additional quality-adjusted life years and more than 9.9% (£14,539, standard error = £2072) additional accumulated pre-tax earnings by age 63 years. Therefore, childhood interventions to increase social and emotional skills would be expected to reduce future healthcare costs and increase wealth. Our three-stage methodology can be used to predict the life-course effects of investments in childhood skills by combining results from datasets across population cohorts.

Cohort matters: The relationships between living arrangements and psychological health from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA)

BackgroundLittle is known about cohort variations in the relationships between living arrangements and psychological health among older adults. The current study evaluated whether cohort differences in the intergenerational support affect the differences in the mental health benefits of multigenerational living arrangements, and how they do so. MethodsUsing panel regression models with lagged variables based on South Korean data, we compared the shape of the relationships between living arrangements and psychological conditions of two cohorts of older adults. ResultsThe study found birth cohort differences in older adults’ psychological well-being. Among older adults in recent cohorts, living in a multigenerational household was positively associated with depression and negatively linked with life satisfaction. The cohort variations were partly explained by children's marital status and home ownership. ConclusionThe birth cohort variations in psychological health implications of living arrangements may reflect the changing patterns of intergenerational support and family values.

Epidemiological profile of women victims of domestic violence in Casablanca

Abstract Introduction Violence against women is a major public health problem because, whatever its form, it has an impact on the physical and psychological health of victims. Objectives To describe the socio-demographic characteristics of the victims and their partners as well as the different forms of violence observed and their impact on the victims. Participants and Methods This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted from January to March 2019 in two associations providing assistance to women victims of domestic violence. Results Our study collected 102 women whose average age was 33 +/- 10.8 years (18-67 years), 77% resided in urban areas, 54% had left the marital home. Regarding marriage, 86% were married and 37% had been married for more than 10 years. The average number of dependent children was 1.75 +/-1.3. Regarding employment status, 65% were housewives and 61% had no income; a quarter of the victims had a history of domestic violence. Regarding their spouses, the average age was 40 years old, 9% were unemployed; 41% had consumed alcohol at the time of the violence and one third of them had taken drugs. Physical and psychological violence were present in almost all cases, respectively 99% and 97%, economic violence in 73% of cases and sexual violence in 69% of cases. These incidents occurred mainly in the context of conflict with in-laws (66.7%). Conclusions Despite the measures undertaken by the authorities, domestic violence is a scourge that is not limited to any particular profile and has complex triggering mechanisms. Key messages Domestic violence is still a scourge today. The identification of strategic axes of prevention is essential.

Generational variations in the timing of entry into homeownership in Shanghai: The role of family formation and family of origin

Radical housing reform has triggered tremendous changes in both housing supply and housing demand in China over the past four decades, leading to apparent generational fractures in homeownership. In contrast to the rising age of first dwelling purchasers in some Western countries, younger cohorts in China are entering homeownership at increasingly younger ages despite rising housing prices. Based on a retrospective survey conducted in Shanghai in 2018 and 2019, this study examines the changing roles of family formation and parental background in affecting the timing of entering homeownership across different cohorts. Employing event history analyses, this study demonstrates that transitions to first homeownership have become synchronised with family formation among younger cohorts, which implies the social norm of ‘marital home’. Furthermore, the results reveal that parental background is increasingly influential in determining the timing of first home purchase; men and individuals from one-child families are more likely to be the beneficiary of parental help to enter homeownership. Through the lens of cohort, this study contributes to understanding the changing role of family formation and family of origin, which are shaped by institutional and cultural transformations in China. The intensified intergenerational transmission leads to exacerbation of horizontal housing inequality, that is, some achieving homeownership at a younger age while others being shunned from homeownership in the context of worsening housing affordability.

Penalizing ‘runaway’ migrant wives: commercial cross-border marriages and home space as confinement

ABSTRACT This study examines the use of the term ‘gachul (absconding from home)’ in courts and immigration policies to punish the behavior of marriage migrant women who enter South Korea after marriage and then leave their husbands. The study focuses on penalized mobility outside migrants’ marital homes, which is interpreted as deviance from the expected family role. By conceptualizing home as a confinable space, the paper discusses migrant women’s exclusion from citizenship based on their contribution to the family. The paper draws from cases heard in criminal courts and laws and policies, paying attention to the conflation of criminal, immigration, and family laws and the effect on marriage and family. Notably, it highlights cases of uxoricide, marital rape, and international child abduction. The cases reveal that judicial and executive bodies penalize marriage migrants’ departure from home, regardless of the justification for their actions.