Two hundred million girls might be alive today if they weren’t, well, girls. 1 That is how many female babies and girls the United Nations estimates have died because they were not born male and were rejected by their families. “Son preference,” as it is called, leads to the pervasive degradation and devaluing of women that can result in a child being given in marriage, a form of abuse that is alive and well in the 21st century. The history of child marriage has its roots in the complex, cultural belief that female human life lacks value. Curses, dowries, employment, poverty and misplaced ideologies all contribute to the varied reasons a family would choose to give their little girl in marriage before the age of consent. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) defines marriage of children as “a formal or informal union where one or both parties are under the age of 18.” 2 Though this can and does happen to boys, it is predominantly an issue for girls. Child ma...
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