scholarly journals Gender Inequalities and Fertility in Morocco: Measuring Women’s Empowerment and Impact on the Ideal Number of Children

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 325-350
Author(s):  
Chaimae Drioui ◽  
◽  
Fatima Bakass ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Health Survey ◽  
Family Health ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Fertility Preferences ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Ideal Number ◽  
The Ideal

In Morocco, access to rights for women has strengthened over the decades. Their social status has significantly improved. This study aims to measure women’s empowerment, particularly in the domestic sphere and in relation to spouses, and its effect on women’s fertility preferences. Women’s empowerment is estimated following a similar approach to constructing the SWPER composite index, which is based on several dimensions such as education, decision-making, and attitude towards domestic violence as proposed in the literature. An empirical examination of empowerment’s impact on fertility preferences, measured by the ideal number of children, was conducted using a generalized Poisson regression model. The data are from two surveys, the 2003-2004 Population and Family Health Survey and the 2011 National Population and Family Health Survey. The results corroborate women’s empowerment in reducing the ideal number of children through independence from traditional social norms, increased bargaining power, and communication within the couple. Women’s access to educational resources appears to be a key factor, especially when it comes to fertility planning, as well as the rejection of male violence.

scholarly journals Determinants Of Fertility And Fertility Preferences In Pakistan: Comparative Secondary Analysis Of PDHS 2007-2013

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-38
Author(s):  
Aisha Jalil ◽  
Rubeena Zakar ◽  
Ahmed Usman ◽  
Aaisha Amjad
Keyword(s):  
Health Survey ◽  
Reproductive History ◽  
Demographic And Health Survey ◽  
Reproductive Age ◽  
Health Determinants ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Fertility Preferences ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Ideal Number ◽  
Social Demographics

Fertility rate is on gradual decline in Pakistan like other developing countries with increased acceptance of family planning methods. Pakistan Demographic and Health Surveys revealed a slow decline from 4.1 in 2007 to 3.8 children per woman in 2013. Despite availability of nationally representative primary data, empirical researches on demographic and health determinants of fertility and fertility preferences in Pakistan are rare. The aim of this study is to assess the major differences in factors determining fertility and fertility preferences in Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2006- 2007 and 2012-2013. Using two data sets Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2006-2007 and 2012-2013, researchers conducted a comparison of findings generated in secondary analyses. Researchers studied the association of social demographics, reproductive history and infant mortality with fertility and fertility preferences among ever-married women of reproductive age (15-49). Results are indicated using binary logistic regression and multivariate analysis. Findings support the association of social demographics of women, living sons, child mortality and reproductive history with ideal number of children; desire to reproduce more and number of living children. Injection induced labour pains, C-section deliveries, fistula problem, abortions and spotting during gestation are associated significantly with lower ideal number of children. Living sons are positively associated with ideal number of children and negatively associated with desire to reproduce more. The desire to reproduce more in association with women’s age 15-29, rural place of residence and C-section deliveries has reduced over time from 2007 to 2013 in country. Complications during pregnancies and delivery are important determinants of fertility and fertility preferences among women. Further research is needed to assess the association of pregnancy and delivery problems with fertility and fertility preferences in Pakistan.

scholarly journals Women's empowerment and fertility preferences of married women: analysis of demographic and health survey’2016 in Timor-Leste

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-261
Author(s):  
Nandeeta Samad ◽  
◽  
Pranta Das ◽  
Segufta Dilshad ◽  
Hasan Al Banna ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Health Survey ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Married Women ◽  
Fertility Rate ◽  
Demographic And Health Survey ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Women Empowerment ◽  
Fertility Preferences ◽  
Timor Leste

<abstract> <p>A recently independent state, Timor-Leste, is progressing towards socioeconomic development, prioritizing women empowerment while its increased fertility rate (4.1) could hinder the growth due to an uncontrolled population. Currently, limited evidence shows that indicators of women's empowerment are associated with fertility preferences and rates. The objective of this study was to assess the association between women empowerment and fertility preferences of married women aged 15 to 49 years in Timor-Leste using nationally representative survey data. The study was conducted using the data of the latest Timor-Leste Demographic and Health Survey 2016. The study included 4040 rural residents and 1810 urban residents of Timor-Leste. Multinomial logistic regression has been performed to assess the strength of association between the exposures indicating women's empowerment and outcome (fertility preference). After adjusting the selected covariates, the findings showed that exposures that indicate women empowerment in DHS, namely, the employment status of women, house and land ownership, ownership of the mobile phone, and independent bank account status, contraceptive use, and the attitude of women towards negotiating sexual relations are significantly associated with fertility preferences. The study shows higher the level of education, the less likely were the women to want more children, and unemployed women were with a higher number of children. Our study also found that the attitude of violence of spouses significantly influenced women's reproductive choice. However, employment had no significant correlation with decision-making opportunities and contraceptive selection due to a lack of substantial data. Also, no meaningful data was available regarding decision-making and fertility preferences. Our findings suggest that women's empowerment governs decision-making in fertility preferences, causing a decline in the fertility rate.</p> </abstract>

scholarly journals Women’s empowerment and fertility decision-making in 53 low and middle resource countries: a pooled analysis of demographic and health surveys

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. e045952
Author(s):  
Rezwanul Haque ◽  
Khorshed Alam ◽  
Syed Mahbubur Rahman ◽  
Syed Afroz Keramat ◽  
Mohammed Khaled Al-Hanawi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Wife Beating ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Women Empowerment ◽  
Fertility Desire ◽  
Household Decision ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Household Decision Making ◽  
Ideal Number

ObjectiveWomen’s empowerment and its association with fertility preference are vital for central-level promotional health policy strategies. This study examines the association between women’s empowerment and fertility decision-making in low and middle resource countries (LMRCs).DesignThis cross-sectional study uses the Demographic and Health Survey database.Settings53 LMRCs from six different regions for the period ranging from 2006 to 2018.ParticipantsThe data of women-only aged 35 years and above is used as a unit of analysis. The final sample consists of 91 070 married women.MethodsWe considered two outcome variables: women’s perceived ideal number of children and their ability to achieve preferred fertility desire and the association with women empowerment. Women empowerment was measured by their participation in household decision-making and attitude towards wife-beating. The negative binomial regression model was used to assess women’s perceived ideal number of children, and multivariable logistic regression was used to evaluate women’s ability to achieve their preferred fertility desire.ResultsOur study found that empowered women have a relatively low ideal number of children irrespective of the measures used to assess women empowerment. In this study, the measures were participation in household decision-making (incidence rate ratio (IRR): 0.92, 95% CI: 0.91 to 0.93) and attitude towards wife-beating (IRR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.95 to 0.97). In the LMRCs, household decision-making and negative attitude towards wife-beating have been found associated with 1.12 and 1.08 times greater odds of having more than their ideal number of children.ConclusionOur findings suggest that women’s perceived fertility desire can be achieved by enhancing their empowerment. Therefore, a modified community-based family planning programme at the national level is required, highlighting the importance of women’s empowerment on reproductive healthcare as a part of the mission to assist women and couples to have only the number of children they desire.

Contraceptive use and its effect on Indian women’s empowerment: evidence from the National Family Health Survey-4

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biplab Dhak ◽  
Niranjan Saggurti ◽  
Faujdar Ram
Keyword(s):  
Health Survey ◽  
Contraceptive Use ◽  
Family Health ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
National Family Health Survey ◽  
Critical Pathways ◽  
National Family ◽  
Using Data

AbstractThe positive effect of women’s empowerment on the use of contraceptives is well established. However, the reverse effect, i.e. the potential effect of use of contraceptives on women’s empowerment, is relatively unexplored. This study examined the direct impact of contraceptive use on women’s empowerment in currently married women aged 15–49 years in India using data from the National Family Health Survey-4 conducted in 2015–16. A two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression model was used to account for the issue of endogeneity that appears in a general logit model. The use of contraceptives by the sample women was found to be associated with greater women’s empowerment in terms of both their mobility and decision-making power. The pathways to greater women’s empowerment are often presumed to be factors such as changing perception of their domestic role and sense of control over their own body. While these are integral, this paper highlights how the possible control over family size and birth interval through use of contraception may also be critical pathways to increasing women’s empowerment.

scholarly journals The Influence of Household Income, Education, Gender on Fertility Willingness in Contemporary China

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Household Income ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Institutional Perspective ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Ideal Number ◽  
Ordinary Least Square Regression ◽  
The Government ◽  
Chinese General Social Survey ◽  
The Ideal

Why does the birthrate in China continuously decline? Why are Chinese people unwilling to have children now even after the One-Child Policy has been abandoned? I propose that the government policy was not the single crucial factor affecting the reduction of births in China. Household income, education, and gender also may have played a role. I use the 2015 Chinese General Social Survey to analyze the relationships between these three factors and the ideal number of children. The sample size of this subset is 2,373. Ordinary least square regression reveals that the ideal number of children increases as household income increases, while increasing education reduces the ideal number of children. Gender of potential parents does not have an effect on predicting the ideal number of children. The findings support the effects of household income and education on fertility willingness but reject that of gender. This study contributes to a sociological perspective on the demography of China. It suggests from an institutional perspective which factors would need to be changed to increase individuals’ fertility willingness.

scholarly journals Women’s empowerment is associated with maternal nutrition and low birth weight: Evidence from Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alamgir Kabir ◽  
Md Mahbubur Rashid ◽  
Kamal Hossain ◽  
Md Arifuzzaman Khan ◽  
Shegufta Shefa Sikder ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Birth Weight ◽  
Low Birth Weight ◽  
Health Survey ◽  
Maternal Nutrition ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Wealth Quintile ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Demographic Health Survey ◽  
Maternal Undernutrition

Abstract Background The burden of maternal undernutrition and low birth weight (LBW) incurs enormous economic costs due to their adverse consequences. Women’s empowerment is believed to be one of the key factors for attaining maternal and child health and nutritional goals. Our objective was to investigate the association of women’s empowerment with maternal undernutrition and LBW. Methods We used nationally representative data from the Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey for 2011 and 2014. We analysed 27,357 women and 9,234 mother-child pairs. A women’s empowerment index (WEI) was constructed using principal component analysis with five groups of indicators: a) education, b) access to socio-familial decision making, c) economic contribution and access to economic decision making, d) attitudes towards domestic violence and e) mobility. We estimated odds ratios as the measure of association between the WEI and the outcome measures using generalized estimating equations to account for the cluster level correlation. Results The overall prevalence of maternal undernutrition was 20% and LBW was 18%. The WEI was significantly associated with both maternal undernutrition and LBW with a dose-response relationship. The adjusted odds of having a LBW baby was 32% [AOR (95% CI):0.68 (0.57, 0.82)] lower in the highest quartile of the WEI relative to the lowest quartile. Household wealth significantly modified the effect of the WEI on maternal nutrition.; in the highest wealth quintile, the odds of maternal undernutrition was 54% [AOR (95% CI): 0.46 (0.33, 0.64)] lower while in the lowest wealth quintile the odds of undernutrition was only 18% [AOR (95% CI): 0.82 (0.67, 1.00)] lower comparing the highest WEI quartile with the lowest WEI quartile. However, the absolute differences in prevalence of undernutrition between the highest and lowest WEI quartiles were similar across wealth quintiles (6-8%). Conclusions This study used a comprehensive measure of women’s empowerment and provides strong evidence that low levels of women’s empowerment is associated with maternal undernutrition as well as with delivering LBW babies in Bangladesh. Therefore, policies to increase empowerment of women would contribute to improved public health.

scholarly journals ARE THERE SEX PREFERENCES IN BRAZIL?

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (101) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Zanatta Coutinho
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Health Survey ◽  
Demographic Health Survey ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Sex Composition ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Sex Preference ◽  
Sex Preferences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ideal Number

Society ascribes roles and expectations for people based on their sex. When the costs and benefits of each sex are different, people may have different motivations for having sons or daughters because children of different sexes are not substitutable. Sex preferences may then increase fertility, as women and couples who pursue a certain sex composition may progress to additional births. To understand how the social structure has been shaping sex preferences and fertility ideals, it is important to identify the characteristics of women with different preferences. Using responses to questions about an ideal number of children and their sex composition available in the Brazilian Demographic Health Survey of 1996 and 2006, this paper provides evidence that a balanced sex preference exists among most Brazilians; some evidence of a secondary daughter preference is also found. Evidence also shows that “gender indifference” has become more pronounced as fertility declines.

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