Feb. 2010 Update: Click here to download our new fact sheet Gender Inequality and Violence Against Women and Girls Around the World.

In many regions of the world, especially ones where virginity is highly prized, child marriage is common. Fifty-one million young women and girls in developing countries are married, often to much older partners.

Child marriage can have serious, even fatal consequences for young women.

• Young women often must drop out of school and are isolated from friends and from access to information.
• They face a serious power imbalance in marriage - they may not be able to assert their rights to their older husbands or, at worst, are physically and/or sexually abused.
• They lack access to birth control and the autonomy to use it and so, experience childbirth at a very young age. Girls under age 15 are five times as likely to die in childbirth as those over age 20 and girls ages 15-19 are twice as likely.
• They often cannot convince or even ask their husbands to use condoms, and so, are at risk for HIV. In some developing countries, young married women are more at risk for HIV than young married women.
• They may not have access to health care or assistance programs.

Young women have the right to enter into a marriage only with their full and informed consent, and to be equal in that marriage. Child marriage harms young women and is a violation of human rights.

Governments can provide leadership in ending child marriage by:

• Funding culturally competent programs to combat it
• Fully funding international family planning
• Ending abstinence-only programs, which reinforce bias by placing a strong emphasis on virginity and marriage.

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Read about related issues on Amplify

Discrimination
Reproductive Health
Social Justice and Human Rights

Other Resources

Need current, reliable information on this topic? Check out the links below for the latest research.

• How to End Child Marriage:  Action Strategies for Prevention and Protection, from ICRW
• Gender Bias: Perspectives from the Developing World (The Facts)
  • en español—Tendencia a favorecer al sexo masculino sobre el femenino: perspectivas desde el mundo en vías de desarrollo
  • en français—Genre Biais: Perspectives du Tier Monde
• Giving Up Harmful Practices, Not Culture (Issues at a Glance)
  • en español—Renunciar a las prácticas nocivas, no a la cultura
  • en français—Abandonner les pratiques nuisibles et non la culture