# <mark>opportunities (economically and socially) for women, which must be problematized.</mark><sup>41</sup>

_<mark>Q15: P: I started dating him, then I went to live with him, then I left, I didn ́t want to study anymore...I was twelve, thirteen...</mark>_ _<mark>IR: How did you make the decision to not go anymore?</mark>_ _P: Well, he also didn’t want me to go. [He said] ‘Don’t go, don’t go to school’. Then I started working also with farming daily jobs, so I didn’t go anymore. Sometimes I went one week, then for two days I didn’t go. I started skipping and skipping and then didn’t go anymore._ _IR: And what about your family at the time, did they say anything? P: No._ _Woman, 22 years, rural_

**After these transitions, young men and women are “left to make their own decisions”.** The following quotation sheds light on how parents withdraw their involvement from their children’s life decisions after they enter unions or – as in the following case – after they get pregnant.<sup>42</sup>

_<mark>Q16</mark>_ **_<mark>:</mark>_** _<mark>P: No, I didn’t talk to anyone about it. I only told mother that I didn’t want to study anymore... IR: How about your mother, when you said you wouldn’t study anymore, what did she tell you? P: She was upset, wanting me to go to school to study. But, I don ́t know, I thought it wasn’t possible anymore, I told her I couldn't do it anymore. Then I got pregnant and after that she didn ́t care anymore, when I got pregnant she didn't care about anything anymore. Neither did I, and so there you go, I just stopped studying once and for all.</mark>_ _<mark>Women, 19 years, from urban Caranguejo-Tabaiares</mark>_ Hence, on the one hand their immediate decision-making capacity may increase with these important life events (marriage, union, pregnancy) because they are associated with adulthood and not adolescence. At the same time, the decisions they may take at this point are often a product of short-term thinking, lack of thorough planning or consideration of the consequences they will face.

**_<mark>How Dropping out of School Contributes to Labor Market Outcomes</mark>_**

**<mark>After dropping out, social norms around marriage and the pressure to fulfill the roles of the “good wife” and “good mother” will tend to shift women’s focus towards their domestic and family lives while also implying economic dependence on a partner.</mark>**<sup>**43**</sup> <mark>A common theme in the trajectories in married life for women is the</mark>

> 41 Attitudes and expectations about the future can influence the probability of teenage motherhood (Plotnick 1992, 1993, 2007). When young women are poor and face a lack of opportunities, teenage childbearing and motherhood can be perceived as a rational choice. In other cases, given the specific circumstances, the incentives to avoid a pregnancy may not be high enough (Azevedo et al. 2013; Cater and Coleman 2006).

42 For the concrete case of Brazil, Heilborn and Cabral (2011) emphasize the differences in the perception of ways to transition to adulthood based on social class. The authors clearly link these observed differences to availability of opportunities or the absence thereof: “This ideal conception of passage to adult life (including the completion of an education and the building of a professional career) ignores that the availability of social opportunities is not offered in equal conditions for youth of different social classes” (pg. 42).

> 43 This is in line with the findings in Muñoz Boudet et al (2012), who show that across their multicountry qualitative study sample, almost every participant described a “good husband” as the main authority in the household, main decision-maker and provider. Compared to that, the “good wife”

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