<mark>economic opportunities meant that many refugees were often reliant on running down savings while also</mark> depending on humanitarian aid and assistance (ILO 2017).

<mark>In this context, women are especially vulnerable, often reliant on the income of male family members and facing barriers to labor market participation. For example, very few Syrian women initially applied for work permits; 95 percent of work permits issued by 2016 had been issued to men. Qualitative research suggests that women who work are more likely to be household principal applicants and, in some regions of Jordan, those who work are almost exclusively employed in agriculture. Yet, women’s ability to contribute to their families’ standard of living is increasingly important (Care International in Jordan, 2016). Some contribute to the family income through informal home‐based work such as food catering of</mark> traditional Syrian specialties.<sup>15</sup> <mark>The lack of economic opportunities for men and women has had repercussions for their children. For many refugee families, marriage is a source of financial security, protection, and status, and they are willing to marry their daughters at a younger age. Before the crisis, 13 percent of marriages celebrated in Syria involved children under 18. With the outbreak of the conflict, the percentage of Syrian marriages involving girls ages 15–17 in Jordan increased from 12 percent in 2011 to 31.7 percent in 2014 (UNICEF 2014). As yet, little is known about the reasons for increased rates of child marriage in Jordan, but recent research among Syrian refugees in Lebanon reveals that contributing factors include Syrian parents thinking that the risks of gender‐based violence and harassment are higher in Lebanon than they were in Syria and that some Syrian girls choose to marry as a way to exit unfavorable living conditions (Bartels et</mark> al. 2017).

<mark>Early marriage, often forced, is recognized as a form of GBV and increases the bride’s potential of experiencing negative physical and mental health consequences. Compared to girls who marry later, child brides are at greater risk of having children at younger ages before they are emotionally and physical mature (Klugman et al 2014). Early motherhood frequently which contributes to complications during pregnancy and childbirth, making early pregnancy the number one cause of death for girls ages 15–19 and increasing the rate of stillbirth or infant death by 50 percent in mothers under 20 years of age.</mark><sup>16</sup> <mark>Child brides are also more likely to drop out of school, earning less over their lifetimes and living in poverty. Additionally, there is an increased likelihood that girls who marry early will experience physical, sexual, or emotional intimate partner violence; have their physical mobility restricted; and/or have only limited decision‐making power. More fundamentally, child brides may be disempowered in ways that deprive them of their basic rights to health, education, and safety, including lack of access to education and later, to employment opportunities (Wodon et al. 2017).</mark><sup>17</sup>

> 15 Female participants in Irbid had found work in agriculture, and most had been working in the sector for some time. The female participants in Irbid were also almost all heads of their households and responsible for income, while the female participants in Mafraq were, for the most part, dependent on the income of male family members (ILO 2017).

> 16 <u>https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/themes/health/ accessed January 4, 2018.</u>

> 17 It is worth noting that these documented consequences of child marriage are drawn from populations that are not forcibly displaced. The impact of displacement is likely to exacerbate some of the profound consequences of early marriage.

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