Editing Polygyny (section)

===Criticism===
Criticism of polygyny focuses on the wellbeing of the wives in such marriages, including coercion, buying and selling of wives (such as through [[bride price]], which is common in societies that practice polygyny<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/debtfirst5000yea00grae/page/131|title=Debt: The First 5,000 Years|last=Graeber|first=David|publisher=Melville House|date=2011|isbn=978-1-933633-86-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/debtfirst5000yea00grae/page/131 131–132]}}</ref>), concerns about inequality and the fate of the young men left without wives (such as the [[Lost boys (Mormon fundamentalism)|lost boys in the FLDS Church]]), as well as the relation between polygyny practiced on a large scale in a society and war.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2018/03/19/why-polygamy-breeds-civil-war|title = Why polygamy breeds civil war|newspaper = The Economist}}</ref>

A notable critic of polygyny was [[Thomas Aquinas]] nearly eight centuries ago. He contended that polygyny is unjust to wives and children.<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal|url=http://law.emory.edu/elj/content/volume-64/issue-6/articles-and-essays/two-flesh-western-monogamy-polygamy.html|title=Why Two in One Flesh? The Western Case for Monogamy over Polygamy {{!}} Emory University School of Law {{!}} Atlanta, GA|last=Witte|first=John Jr.|journal=Emory Law Journal|date=January 2015|volume=64|issue=6|page=1675|language=en|access-date=2019-11-24}}</ref> He also argues that it creates rival stepchildren and forces them to compete for attention, food, and shelter. According to Aquinas, polygyny violates the requirements of fidelity between husband and wife.<ref name=":10" />

Polygyny has been criticized by [[feminism|feminists]] such as Professor John O. Ifediora, who believes that women should be equal to men and not subject to them in marriage. Professor Ifediora also believes that polygyny is a "hindrance to social and economic development" in the continent of Africa due to women's lack of financial control.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ifediora|first=John|date=2016|title=Polygamy As Further Subjugation Of African Women, And National Economies|url=http://www.casade.org/polygamy-subjugation-african-women-national-economies/|journal=CASADE|page=1|access-date=2017-04-03|archive-date=2017-04-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404043456/http://www.casade.org/polygamy-subjugation-african-women-national-economies/}}</ref> Standard polygynist practices often leave women at a disadvantage if they make the decision to remove themselves from the polygynist lifestyle. To leave the marriage, women must repay their bride price. Though this is simple in thought, this is not simple in execution. To prevent their wives from leaving, husbands will often keep the bride price at high levels, which is often at an unpayable level for women.{{sfn|Boserup|1970|p=47}} In most cases, women do not have access to their children if they decide to leave polygyny, nor are they allowed to take them, due to cultural ideas of ownership in relation to progeny. [[Marci Hamilton]] sees polygyny as a form of oppression of women; she wrote: "In polygamy, also not a victimless crime, the practice is built on the subjugation of women to the men's needs and demands. Moreover, for many of the religious polygamists, the women are nothing but the means to a particular doctrinal end – creating more children to increase the man's odds of getting into heaven. Again, the men control the finances and the women are commodities, carrying out the sexual goals of the men. There can be no gender equality in this scenario, which is incapable of being squared with any viable theory of women's rights."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://supreme.findlaw.com/legal-commentary/the-two-ps-of-gender-inequality-prostitution-and-polygamy-how-the-laws-against-both-are-underenforced-to-protect-men-and-subjugate-women.html|title=The Two 'P's of Gender Inequality: Prostitution and Polygamy – How the Laws Against Both Are Underenforced to Protect Men and Subjugate Women|last=Hamilton|first=Marci A.|date=9 July 2009|website=FindLaw}}</ref> First wives in polygynous marriages are often in a difficult situation, when the law or religious code does not require their consent or input for new wives to be admitted in the marriage, so the first wife is forced to accept any new women brought into the family by the husband and to get along with them.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kenya-women-polygamy-insight-idUSKBN1L0009|title = 'Put up and shut up': Polygamy breeds poverty for Kenyan women and children|newspaper = Reuters|date = 15 August 2018}}</ref> Polygyny is criticized because of its asymmetrical, unequal marital arrangement, where the husband has sexual/romantic relations with several women, but the wives can only have such a relation with one man, their husband, which often leads to rigid gender roles in the marriage.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brooks |first1=Thom |title=The Problem with Polygamy |journal=Philosophical Topics |date=2009 |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=109–122 |doi=10.5840/philtopics20093727 |jstor=43154559 |s2cid=53332349 |url=http://dro.dur.ac.uk/10785/1/10785.pdf }}</ref>

A criticism against polygyny is that in almost all cultures and religious communities that practice it, polygyny is the only form of polygamy that is allowed; and, as such, this violates modern principles of equality between men and women, especially as in many such places females having multiple partners is violently punished through [[honor killing]]s and [[stoning]], or discouraged through [[female genital mutilation]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/MurdochUeJlLaw/2005/2.html|last=Struensee |first=Vanessa von|title=The Contribution of Polygamy to Women's Impoverishment: An Argument for Its Prohibition|date=2005  |volume=12 |issue=1–2|journal=Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Somali woman 'with 11 husbands' stoned to death by al-Shabab |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-44055536 |work=BBC News |date=9 May 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Akweongo |first1=Patricia |last2=Jackson |first2=Elizabeth F. |last3=Appiah-Yeboah |first3=Shirley |last4=Sakeah |first4=Evelyn |last5=Phillips |first5=James F. |title=It's a woman's thing: gender roles sustaining the practice of female genital mutilation among the Kassena-Nankana of northern Ghana |journal=Reproductive Health |date=1 March 2021 |volume=18 |issue=1 |page=52 |doi=10.1186/s12978-021-01085-z |pmid=33648528 |pmc=7923333 |doi-access=free }}</ref> In the [[United States]], there has been controversy surrounding the [[Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints]] that practices polygyny, after the community has been marred by accusations of child sexual abuse, welfare fraud, and child labor trafficking, that culminated in the [[life imprisonment]] of polygynous leader [[Warren Jeffs]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dark |first=Stephen |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/17/fundamentalist-mormons-sister-wives-homelessness|title=As a polygamist community crumbles, 'sister wives' are forced from homes|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=17 November 2017}}</ref>