Having a crush on another woman wasn’t blinked at—it was expected and considered part of women’s college culture. A group of New England women took this concept one step further by “getting married.” Though they didn’t commit to one another legally, they combined households, lived together and supported one another for the long term. These independent women pushed the boundaries of what society deemed acceptable for women by attending college, finding careers and living outside their parents’ home. But since they did so with other women, their activities were deemed socially acceptable.

The current research (which you can read in full here) consisted of three studies. The first was geared towards examining how participants describe heterosexual men whose wives keep their own names after marriage; the second explored how a woman’s choice to keep her name after marriage influences perceptions both of the husband’s gender-typed traits and his power level in the relationship; and the third both sought to go a little deeper with the second study’s ideas and determine whether people with certain ideas about gender roles are more or less likely to perceive heterosexual men negatively if their wives retain their own names after marriage.

One of the main things holding other girls back from getting an education is early marriage. "In Rajasthan, 50-60% of girls are married below the age of 18. A lot of children - about 10-15% - are married below the age of 10," Safeena says. According to Unicef, India has more child brides than any other country. Nearly half of all living Indian women were married below the official legal age of 18.

Early marriage appears to have absolutely no benefits. It accelerates population growth and decreases women’s participation in the labour force. It also reduces a country’s overall national earnings. Girls who marry before they turn 18 are at greater risk of childbirth-related complications that are the leading cause of death worldwide for girls aged 15 to 19.

Six in 10 women in the UK who have had a traditional Muslim wedding ceremony are not in legally recognised marriages, depriving them of rights and protection, according to a survey. It found that nearly all married Muslim women have had a nikah, a religious marriage ceremony, but 61% had not gone through a separate civil ceremony which would make the marriage legal under UK law. If the marriage breaks down, women who have only had a nikah are unable to go to the family court to seek a division of assets, such as the family home and spouse’s pension.

But the numbers obscure a more complex reality for girls in school, particularly at the higher levels. A web of pressures threaten to dislodge their education at any time. Higher secondary level is a paradoxical time of unprecedented freedom and looming obligation for young women.

"I wish I could have gone to school; I only attended until the fifth grade."