“Agency, Social Status and Performing Marriage in Postcolonial Societies” in Journal of Asian and African Studies, 54 (7)
This article examines contextually-grounded perspectives on the socio-political significance of marriage in contemporary Ghanaian society. Drawing on qualitative interviews among men and women in northwestern Ghana, this article argues that, beyond historicizing the institution of monogamous marriage, women’s agency in desiring, and navigating marriages are performatively agentic and tied to attaining a myriad of socio-cultural, economic and political capital. Situated within the constrained articulations of participants, our findings alert us to complex negotiations and manoeuvres through which men and women aspire for specific forms of masculinities and femininities within the larger gender hierarchies.
Sylvia Bawa is an Associate Professor in York University’s Department of Sociology. Her research and teaching interests include globalization, postcolonial and transnational feminisms, human rights, critical development theory and women’s rights.
Other publications from this author include:
- “‘People come and go but we don’t see anything’: How Might Social Research Contribute to Social Change?” in The Qualitative Report, 24 (11) (2019)
- “Women and the Human Rights Paradigm in the African Context” in International Human Rights of Women (2019)
- “Feminists make too much noise!” Generational differences and ambivalence in feminist development politics in Ghana” in Canadian Journal of African Studies, 52 (1), 1-17 (2018)
- “(Un)African women: identity, class and moral geographies in postcolonial times” in African Identities, 16 (4) (2018)