Gender DIfferences in Effect of MIgration on Marital Timing and Spousal Choice Within Marriage in Nepal

This study examines gender differences in migration's effect on young adult’s marital timing and spousal choice in Nepal. Unique and detailed monthly and yearly data on the timing and sequence of marriage and migration allows me to separate out premarital migration from marital migration for women, important in addressing contemporaneous nature of migration and marriage in a patrilocal society.
I utilize information on how the young respondents’ spouse were chosen- either solely by themselves, solely by parents, or by a joint decision to make distinction between three types of marital decision-making.
Preliminary results show that although migration delays marriage, young women get married upon return and with joint decision s made about their choice of spouse. In a society where both migration of single woman and late marriage is frowned upon, this result indicates positive changes in gender norms and ideology around women’s marriage and migration in Nepali society.