This presentation draws from a current book project that explores the difficulties of using choice-based discourse to study, from a juridical perspective, the experiences of women who adopt morally controversial lifestyles and practices. Three case studies – related to polygamy, paid surrogacy and prostitution – are used to develop the book’s critical analysis of choice. My presentation will concentrate on the first of these, polygamy, which is also known as “plural marriage”. It will aim to discern, through sociological and legal lenses, the presence, meaning and scope of “choice” for women living within cultural contexts that permit or encourage men to unite conjugally with two or more women simultaneously.

The discussion will begin with an assessment of empirical data recording the knowledge and lived experiences of polygamous wives, particularly of those living in western jurisdictions where polygamy is criminally prohibited under State law. This inquiry illuminates the meaning, or rationale, women might ascribe to their decisions to live polygamously. It further demonstrates the way in which women may value, or normatively assess, their experiences as plural wives. The presentation will then consider the way in which formal law in western States – notably, in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia – has responded to polygamy. In this connection, legislative debates, policy analyses, and judicial decisions are considered to discern perceptions and presumptions at the core of State law. Such legal authorities indicate that the formal governance of polygamy – at least in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia – is largely premised upon gender- and culturally-based suppositions about plural marriage and choice, which are not reflected by empirical data. The final part of the presentation will examine how formal law and informal norms, particularly those arising from religious tenets and social and cultural expectations, intersect to influence women’s choices in regard to polygamy. 

Ultimately, this work demonstrates how the dominant western legal narrative about women in polygamy constructs choice in a manner that is both conceptually oversimplified and erroneous. More precisely, knowledge offered by social science research – which is altogether overlooked by juridical authorities and institutions – illuminates instances of agency and resistance that can emerge even within lifestyles and settings that impose stark constraints on women’s choices. In addition, this knowledge exposes the way in which formal law, although purportedly oriented toward protecting women, can operate to compromise women’s interests, circumscribe their options and increase their exposure to risk.