Women for Sale Free Essay Example

Argues that arranged marriages have two related cultural aspects. One is where one of the partner, usually the woman, is forced into marriage and has not given their consent to enter into the relationship. Whereas, the other is the match making process where third parties choose spouses for the marrying agents. The research claims that not enough attention has been paid to the various issues that limit the marital choice for women and discusses policies and legalities that are slowly coming into place to battle arranged marriages.

This research paper is useful for my study as it will help explain that arranged marriages are most likely a product of cultural factors and pressures and must be battled with relevant legislations for the same.

This research paper identifies the various cultures where arranged marriages prevail. The research paper argues that many families use their daughters and women to be married off to wealthy families and as such consider their women as tradable goods.

The paper claims that arranged marriages are prevalent in most cultures causing problems especially for women, stealing their rights and causing them physical and psychological damage. This research paper is useful for my study as it helps in outlining the causes of arranged marriages in most eastern cultures and the concept of dowry as means of improving a specific family’s economic condition.

Batabyal and Beladi conduct a comparative analysis between love marriages and arranged marriages to determine the more desirable of the two kinds of marriages. The research states that eastern style arranged marriages are preferred over love ones if the time taken for a marrying agent to find a spouse of their choice exceeds the time taken by their well wishers to find a spouse for them.

This paper thus claims that the decision making process between arranged marriage and love marriage largely depends on the expected time of finding a spouse by the agent or the well-wishers.

This research paper is useful for my research study as it helps break down the perception that all arranged marriages are forced ones. Moreover, it will help me in explaining the role of education that has allowed marrying agents to face a clear choice between opting for an arranged spouse or choosing one themselves. It will also highlight the decision making process involved behind arranged marriages.