Changing family strategies in contemporary Morocco: women’s stories, persistent ideologies and matrimonial strategies

Abstract

This article analyses changing family structures in Morocco by examining four households within one family’s residential compound. Despite its location in a rural setting, this compound is not the main site of economic production for these domestic units, meaning that other principles operate in the distribution and use of land. To analyse households within this property allows us to capture how marriage strategies and women’s position inside the family change through generations. Taking into account both the tradition of the extended family organized along agnatic descent lines and recent changes, which have made conjugal households desirable, this paper explores whether the seemingly conflicting values associated with traditional extended households and current opportunities for personal social mobility can be harmoniously integrated by families.