Abandoning female genital mutilation/cutting (FGMC) is an emerging but costly parental investment strategy in rural Ethiopia

Female genital mutilation or cutting (FGMC) has profound consequences for an estimated 200 million women world-wide, yet affected communities often resist efforts to end the practice. Marriage market dynamics have been proposed as key to this resistance, because where FGMC is normative, parents are motivated to cut their daughters to improve their marriage prospects. Some economists have also argued that financial gain, through bride wealth payments, incentivises parents to cut daughter's at time of marriage. Bride wealth, however, does not necessarily equal net economic return, confounding efforts to test this assumption. Here we use detailed data on the financial value of all exchanges at marriage from Ethiopian Arsi Oromo agropastoralists to assess their association with FGMC. We also explore the idea that parents must replace FGMC with other forms of investment (e.g., education) when cutting practices are rejected. Multivariate multilevel Bayesian models were run using data from the first marriages of 358 women to assess the association between FGMC status and education and marriage-related outcomes: bride wealth payments, dowry costs, and age at marriage. Being cut is associated with lower dowry costs and earlier age at marriage but does not predict bride wealth paid by the groom's family. School attendance is associated with higher bride wealth, particularly for women with four or more years of education, and with later age at marriage. These findings indicate that bride wealth payments do not maintain FGMC among the Arsi Oromo. While we find a relative economic loss for parents from FGMC abandonment through higher value dowry gifts, this may be traded-off against the health benefits to uncut daughters. These findings point to the emergence of new norms, whereby Arsi Oromo parents reject cutting for their daughters and prefer their daughters-in-law to be educated. •Female genital mutilation/cutting affects 200 million women globally.•Higher marriage payments are assumed to incentivise parents to cut their daughters.•We find higher bride wealth for educated, but not for cut Ethiopian Arsi Oromo daughters.•Uncut brides receive higher dowry from their parents, enhancing their marital status.•Parents who can afford it abandon cutting for the good of daughters.