Should Child Marriage Be Banned

“Should Child Marriage be Banned?”

Marriage is a legal contract in which a union of love between two people is recognized by society; at the same time, marriage is the foundation of the family. Moreover, “Child marriage” is defined as the formal or informal union of two people in which one or both members are 17 years old or less. Even though child marriage is a tendency that has decreased over the years, there are countries that are still facing this issue. According to a study made by Public Broadcasting Service Foundation in 2010, 29 percent of girls in Latin America and the Caribbean are married before turning 18 years old. For instance, in Dominican Republic it is illegal to get married before being 18 years old but underage people can get married at 15 with consent of the parents and that is the reason why Dom. Rep. is still one of the countries with the highest rates of child marriage. It is frequently seen how parents give their permission due to unmarried teenage pregnancy, economic reasons or because they were educated in a family background where getting married at a young age was generally accepted. Nevertheless, child marriage affects the growth of teenagers and it should not be allowed.

Lots of parents in Latin America were educated in a family background where getting married at a young age was generally accepted and girls were not as important as boys. General opinions used to say that women were seen as fragile mothers who had to stay at home all day and take care of their husbands and children. Therefore, the education for little girls was based on getting them prepared to get married; it was like their whole life was centered into marriage. And it didn’t matter if girls loved the men that they were getting married with; what mattered is that they could not get old without a husband because that was going to be criticized by society. However, gender roles have changed over the years and just because child marriage has happened for many generations, it does not mean that it’s right to give away children at a young age so that they get married. “Prevailing gender roles can limit the full impact of educational or employment opportunities for girls.” (Mathur, Greene & Malhotra, 2003); that means that keeping these kind of traditions is very harmful for young girls, since they see themselves in the obligation of taking responsibilities that are not appropriate for their age. Child marriage limits young girls’ capacity of expanding their abilities because all household tasks must be made by them so there is not enough time to develop new skills and knowledge.

On the other hand, there are parents who think that it is okay for them to give their permission because they will have one less person to feed. This is a very typical thought that exists because of financial crisis and consistent poverty in less-developed countries. Even though it’s true that parents will have fewer expenses on their homes, they should consider the consequences of child marriage in the long run. “For every year a girl stays in secondary school, her eventual wages will be boosted by 15 to 25 percent. When she earns an income, she reinvests on average 90 percent of it into her family, compared

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