FIGURE 2-1 Illustrative patterns in the relationship between women's education and the number of children ever born: (a) Inverse relationships; (b) Curvilinear: Reversed-U and reversed-J relationships; (c) 7-shaped relationships; (d) Positive relationships. SOURCE: Reprinted from Jejeebhoy (1995:20) with permission of Oxford University Press.

compositional differences in the demographic and socioeconomic structure of the populations, as well as in the period to which the studies refer. Nevertheless, Jejeebhoy's review demonstrates clearly that for women with just a few years of education, there is little evidence of a systematic relationship between education and fertility, although a number of recent studies indicate a moderate negative effect. At the secondary level or above, however, the relationship is always negative. The countries in which there is either no or a positive relationship are almost exclusively in sub-Saharan Africa (6/7), as are the majority of inverted U