scholarly journals Women's Empowerment, the Gender Gap in Desired Fertility, and Fertility Outcomes in Developing Countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 358-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Doepke ◽  
Michèle Tertilt
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Family Size ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Household Bargaining ◽  
Ideal Family Size ◽  
Ideal Family ◽  
Important Challenge ◽  
Fertility Choices

We document evidence on preferences for childbearing in developing countries. Across countries, men usually desire larger families than women do. Within countries, we find wide dispersion in spouses' desired fertility: there are many couples whose ideal family size differs by five children or more. This disagreement between spouses suggests that the extent to which women are empowered should matter for fertility choices. We point to evidence at both the macro and micro levels that this is indeed the case. We conclude that taking account of household bargaining and women's empowerment in analyses of fertility is an important challenge for research.

scholarly journals PERIOD AND COHORT DYNAMICS IN FERTILITY NORMS AT THE ONSET OF THE DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION IN KENYA 1978–1998

2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. G. WHITE ◽  
C. HALL ◽  
B. WOLFF
Keyword(s):  
Family Size ◽  
Fertility Decline ◽  
Fertility Transition ◽  
Period Effect ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Demographic Model ◽  
Ideal Family Size ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Ideal Family ◽  
Rapid Fall

Summary.A characteristic of African pre-transitional fertility regimes is large ideal family size. This has been used to support claims of cultural entrenchment of high fertility. Yet in Kenya fertility rates have fallen. In this paper this fall is explored in relation to trends in fertility norms and attitudes using four sequential cross-sectional surveys spanning the fertility transition in Kenya (1978, 1984, 1989 and 1998). The most rapid fall in the reported ideal family size occurred between 1984 and 1989, whilst the most rapid fall in the total fertility rate occurred 5 to 10 years later, between 1989 and 1998. Thus these data, spanning the fertility transition in Kenya, support the traditional demographic model that demand for fertility limitation drives fertility decline. These data also suggest that the decline in fertility norms over time was partly a period effect, as the reported ideal family size was seen to fall simultaneously in all age cohorts, and partly a cohort effect, as older age cohorts reporting higher ideal family sizes were replaced by younger cohorts reporting lower ideal family sizes. These data also suggest that a new fertility norm of four children may have developed by 1989 and continued until 1998. This is consistent with, and perhaps could have been used to predict, the stall in the Kenyan fertility decline after 1998.

scholarly journals Inequalities in women’s empowerment and prevalence of HIV in India

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 3069
Author(s):  
Shri Kant Singh ◽  
Deepanjali Vishwakarma ◽  
Bhawana Sharma ◽  
Santosh Kumar Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Hiv Infections ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Hiv Prevalence ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Spousal Violence ◽  
Sexual Rights ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Hiv Aids

Background: Over the years, there has been growing evidence of continuous narrowing gender gap in new HIV infections, despite stagnation in overall HIV prevalence in India. Among others, one of the reasons behind the exiting pattern in HIV/AIDS in the country is the poor status of women, lack of control over their sexuality and poor reproductive and sexual rights.Methods: This paper analyses the troika of women’s empowerment, spousal-violence, and HIV prevalence in India using data from two rounds (2005-2006 and 2015-2016) of Indian DHS having a community-based HIV testing.Results: Results corroborate the recent spurts in women’s empowerment in India, which cuts across socio-economic groups. It has positively influenced a decline in spousal-violence even in the lowest socio-economic strata despite significant inequality across states. HIV prevalence among women has not been changed over the last decade (0.22% to 0.23%) despite decreased adult HIV prevalence. Women having control over their sexuality is significantly less likely to have HIV infection. Relationship between marital control behavior of husband and HIV prevalence, which was significant in 2005-06 (OR=1.2, p<0.10), has emerged to be insignificant in 2015-16. This means that increasing women's empowerment has altered their HIV prevalence through increasing sexual-rights and reducing the intensity of marital control behavior.Conclusions: A combative relationship has been established between women’s empowerment and their risk of HIV/AIDS. The results have been consistently showing the variations of inequality in women’s empowerment across different states, consequently affecting the risk of HIV/AIDS. Ensuring sexual-rights of women should be the best strategy.

Family planning in Lae urban area of Papua New Guinea 1981

1984 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
William K. A. Agyei
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Family Size ◽  
Contraceptive Use ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Ideal Family Size ◽  
Ideal Family ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Ideal

SummaryA summary of 298 male and 358 female respondents in the Lae urban area of Papua New Guinea in 1981 revealed a relatively high level of contraceptive awareness, but the level of contraceptive use is low. However, the overall current usages of non-traditional methods for the wives of the male and for the female respondents are 34–2% and 37% respectively. The male and the female respondents have the same views on the ideal family size—approximately three children.

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