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This study examines the values underlying marriage formation before childbearing among highly educated women living in Stockholm. This group has been shown in previous research to have increasing propensity to enter marriage before childbearing, due to changing values. Previous studies have suggested a possible connection between rising individualism and gender equality on the one hand, and a new marriage trend on the other hand, noted especially among the highly educated in large cities in Sweden. The values underlying the rise in marriage popularity is yet to be explored which is the aim of the present study based on 20 indepth interviews. The analysis is guided by theories on individualism and gender equality by Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck and Gøsta Esping-Andersen. The results show that rising individualism has created a need for relationship stabilizing tools, where marriage works as a practical security measure for relatively new relationships, prior to having children. The results also show that for the group in the study childbearing and marriage are strongly connected. In contrast to individualization theories this  study shows that high marriage propensity can coexist with high levels of individualization.

The present dissertation deals with the factors influencing the professional careers of mer-chants and craftsmen working in the Swedish town of Sundsvall between 1850 and 1900. The most important hypotheses are: To what degree did social origins influence an entre-preneur's opportunities for running his business? How many of the children of these busi-nessmen assumed and maintained their parents' social status upon attaining adulthood? What significance did the entrepreneur's spouse have for his business activities? To what degree were his economic activities influenced by joining local voluntary associations? By combining data culled from the parish registers of the Swedish Lutheran Church, the poll tax registers and the primary source material for national trade statistics, the author has been able to identify the individuals who worked as entrepreneurs in Sundsvall during the period under investigation, what they paid in business income tax each year, the profes-sional titles they possessed and the places in which they and their relatives resided during their lifetimes. The results show that the majority of the most successful younger entrepreneurs active in the town before the introduction of freedom of trade in Sweden in the year 1864 were mostly immigrants from other parts of the country, who had furthermore come from rela-tively modest backgrounds. However, the social and geographic origins of these entrepre-neur's wives has proven to be of central significance to the success of the business, in in-stances where she had been raised in a business family from Sundsvall. The professional skill of the entrepreneur together with his wife's familiarity with the town, in all likelihood also combined with her inherited cultural capital, contributed to creating a demand from the local populace for the goods or services sold by the company / <p>Distrubution: Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudier, Umeå universitet,, 901 87 Umeå, 090-786 50 00</p>

Population control programs such as family planning and the introduction of sex identification technologies has helped to create skewed sex ratios in northern India and particularly in the state of Haryana. Due to a surplus of men and the numbers of missing females, an organized business of bride trafficking has emerged where poor women from eastern and northeastern states of India are bought and brought to Haryana for the purpose of marriage. This thesis explores how skewed sex ratios have contributed to the phenomenon of bride trafficking in Haryana guided by the theoretical framework of violences of development which argues that there is a hidden paradox within development. This was done by conducting a conventional content analysis in order to create a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. There is scarce research on bride trafficking, therefore this study contributes with extended knowledge in order to shed a light on the increasing trade with females.

This study examines changing gender roles and women&amp / #8217 / s status under the light of t&ouml / re/yasa and shar&amp / #299 / &amp / #8216 / a among the Inner Asian Turkic and Mongolian societies and Ottomans in Anatolia especially between the thirteenth and the first half of the sixteenth centuries. In this frame, this study traces gender roles and women&amp / #8217 / s status in Inner Asia before the influence of Islamic culture and civilizations by using oral and written sources as well as anthropological studies. It also focuses on the formation of t&ouml / re and yasa among Inner Asian societies and shar&amp / #299 / &amp / #8216 / a in the Muslim world. Finally, this study investigates gender roles and women&amp / #8217 / s status in relation with customary (yasa/t&ouml / re and &ouml / rf-i sultani) and religious laws (shar&amp / #299 / &amp / #8216 / a ) among the Mongol Ilkhans, Timurids and Ottomans. Gender roles and women&amp / #8217 / s status are examined according to political, social and cultural characteristics of these dynasties from a comparative perspective.

Cette thèse analyse les causes profondes du sous-développement et des inégalités de genre en Afrique Sub-Saharienne. Le premier chapitre teste empiriquement l’hypothèse de Engels (1884) selon laquelle l’origine des inégalités de genre en Afrique serait la domestication historique des bovins. Pour résoudre les problèmes de biais d’endogenéités dans le choix de la domestication des bovins, j’adopte la stratégie des variables instrumentales en exploitant les facteurs géo-climatiques qui prédisent les terres les plus adaptées pour l’élevage des bovins. Les résultats des analyses montrent que les sociétés qui ont historiquement domestiquées les bovins ont eu plus d’inégalités de genre qui persistent jusqu’aujourd’hui. Le deuxième chapitre est co-écrit avec Raphael Godefroy et Joshua Lewis. Dans ce chapitre, nous analysons les effets de court et long termes de la grande peste bovine survenue en Afrique dans les années 1890. Nous utilisons la méthode des doubles différences combinant les différences entre les terres favorables pour l’élevage des bovins et les conditions climatiques contemporaines. Notre étude montre que les sociétés les plus touchées par la peste bovine sont moins peuplés et ont moins de bovins, de plus les descendants de ces sociétés sont aujourd’hui les plus pauvres. Le dernier chapitre analyse comment le genre des frères et sœurs influence l’âge au mariage des femmes. Les analyses basées sur le sexe du deuxième enfant révèlent que les femmes qui ont une petite sœur se marient plus tôt, ont plus d’enfants et sont moins éduquées. Les effets sont plus accentués dans les groupes ethniques qui utilisent la dot comme norme culturelle du mariage. / This dissertation investigates the deep roots of differences in gender roles and development across societies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Chapter 1 examines the deep origins of differences in gender roles in Africa. I test empirically Engels (1884) hypothesis, that the origin of differences in gender roles in Africa was the historical domestication of cattle. To address potential endogeneity in historical cattle adoption, I adopt an instrumental variables approach that leverages geo-climatic factors affecting the suitability of lands for cattle-raising. I find empirical support for Engels (1884) hypothesis. Further, the results show that these differences in gender roles have persisted to present day. In chapter 2, which is co-authored with Raphael Godefroy and Joshua Lewis, we study the short- and long-run consequences of the 1890s African Rinderpest Epizoodic. We adopt a difference-in-differences strategy that combines differences across ethnic homelands in cattle-suitability with contemporaneous local drought conditions to identify ethnic groups that were more or less exposed to the outbreak. We find that the societies exposed to rinderpest experienced relative decreases in cattle-ownership in the decades after the outbreak. We uncover large relative long-run decreases in wealth among descendants of affected ethnic groups. These persistent economic losses appear to be partially driven by distressed migration. In chapter 3, I investigate how sibling gender composition affects women’s transition to first marriage in sub-Saharan Africa. To address potential endogeneity in the final sibling gender composition, I exploit the random assignment of the second child’s gender in household with at least two children. I find that female with a younger sister get married younger, with negative consequences for her education and literacy. The effects are stronger within countries that traditionally pay bride price at marriage.