The Politics of Child Marriage: Evidence from Spain

• In Event: Democracy's Status in Iberia: From Retrenchment to Reimagination?

Abstract

Child marriages, commonplace in lower- and middle-income countries, also occur with some frequency in wealthy western countries. We focus on Spain, a Western European country that is rarely included in studies on child marriage. Prior to 2015, in Spain, children as young as 14 could legally marry with permission from a judge – one of the lowest minimum ages for marriage globally. In 2015, the minimum age for persons to legally marry was raised to 18 with the exception of emancipated minors at age 16. In 2015, the minimum age for persons to legally marry was raised to 18 with the exception of emancipated minors[i] at age 16. Between 1975 – the beginning of the transition to democracy – and 2015, a total of 220,263 children – predominantly girls – legally married. However, the number of persons entering marriage before turning 18 had steadily declined from a high of almost 18,000 in 1978 to 70 in 2014, suggesting that it was not a high priority issue by 2015. The issue was also rarely mentioned as a domestic problem in the national media. Furthermore, Spain had signed and ratified several international treaties and conventions condemning the practice in the decades prior to 2015. Why, then, did the law change when child marriages occurred relatively rarely but not when they were more frequent? That is, why and how did a low salience issue rise to the agenda and result in legislative change in 2015?
We employ a “critical actor” approach to explain the timing of the reform. We also assess the role of international norm confusion, women’s representation in politics, and issue framing and bundling to explain why a low salience issue rose to the level of legislative reform and was adopted without opposition. Our primary data include elite interviews, analysis of news reports, and legislative records.

Authors

• Kerstin Hamann, University of Central Florida

• Gabriela Foerster, University of Central Florida