Women·s Empowerment and Achievement of Desired Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Previous studies, conducted mainly in Asian countries, have shown that women's
empowerment is associated with contraceptive use, lower fertility, and longer birth intervals. Yet
little is known about the association of women's empowerment with fertility desires in subSaharan
African countries where overall fertility levels remain high. This study tries to fill this
gap, exploring whether women's empowerment affects their ideal number of children and their
ability to have only the number of children they want. This study used couples data from four
recent Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in sub-Saharan Africa: Guinea 2005, Mali 2006,
Namibia 2006/2007, and Zambia 2007. Women's empowerment was measured by women's
participation in household decision-making, and by two indices representing gender-role
attitudes: attitudes toward wife beating and attitudes toward refusing sex with one's husband.
The results of the multivariable models indicate that, in two of four countries, having egalitarian
gender-role attitudes was associated with having a smaller ideal number of children, even after
adjusting for other factors. Greater household decision-making was not as consistently associated
with a smaller ideal number of children. In all four countries, a husband having a greater ideal
number of children was associated with the woman having a greater ideal number of children,
regardless of her level of empowerment. Additionally, in Namibia, empowered women were
more likely than less empowered women to have more children than they desired. This finding
likely reflects dissatisfaction felt by more empowered women whose fertility is high, consistent
with social norms, but who personally value smaller families. Additional research is needed that
evaluates the validity of the household decision-making index as an indicator of empowerment in
the context of sub-Saharan communities.

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: ., 2010

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English

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Subject(s)

Sub-Saharan Africa
Women's Empowerment
Decision-making
Demographic and Health Surveys
Ideal Number
Children
Ability

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