“When a girl is poor, getting married to a guy with a good job is a way out of poverty.”
I read an article, many years ago, about young ladies under the age of 18 getting married to much older men here in the US. Many of those were girls age 15-16 marrying civil war veterans for their pensions. The last person to draw a civil war era pension was Irene Triplett of North Carolina in the amount of $73/month.
Irene Triplett received her father’s pension because she herself was disabled and unable to care for herself. Irene passed away in 2020 at age 90.
If you really want to reduce poverty, make it easier for poor girls to get married to guys with good jobs, but who may have difficulty getting wives of their own social class due to attractiveness or whatever.
“Many of those were girls age 15-16 marrying civil war veterans for their pensions. “
I could see an old pensioner marrying a poor young girl to take care of him in exchange for inheriting the right to his pension.