Dowry as a Social Construct: An Analysis of its Effects on Women's Marital Experiences

Abstract

The practice of dowry, which is a social issue in Pakistan, affects women, especially married women, in our society. This study aims to understand the practices and impacts of dowry in the district of Mansehra. Finding out how dowries affect women socially is another goal of the study. To achieve the study objective, we adopt a quantitative research method and a cross-sectional research design to collect and analyze the data. We collected data from 384 female respondents in the Mansehra district using a simple random sampling technique. We collected data through a structured questionnaire and analyzed it through SPSS. The researcher used the Chi-Square test and Kendall’s Tau-b test to know the association and direction of association between study variables. At the bivariate level, the results indicate that all of the items on the dowry scale were significantly (p=0.000) and positively linked to the social effects of dowry. In addition, at the multivariate level, the results indicate that there was a significant (p=0.000) and positive (τb = .868) spurious association between dowry and its social impacts while controlling for the level of education. Also, when the background variable marital status is taken into account, there are significant (p=0.000) and positive (τb =.868) spurious links between dowry and the social effects of dowry.