Fertility Decline and Marital Gender Relations in Egypt

Susan M. Lee-Rife, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)

This paper investigates how recent fertility declines in Egypt have influenced changes in spousal gaps in age and education, and explores the implications of these shifts for marital gender relations. We suggest that fertility decline, largely through gains to women’s education, a reduced pool of male kin for endogamous marriage, and changing expectations surrounding marriage have led to reductions in the gap in the age and educational level between spouses. As spousal gaps in age and education are important predictors of women’s empowerment in many contexts, such shifts may change interactions between spouses and portend shifts in societal gender relations. The paper first examines associations between changes in the fertility regime and cohort-level changes in spousal age and education gaps, and supplemental analyses to explore what these shifts might mean for marital relations at the couple level. This analysis will offer insights into the gender implications of demographic change.