Critical Perspectives on Schooling and Fertility in the Developing World (1999) / Chapter Skim
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2 Female Education and Fertility: Examining the Links
2 Female Education and Fertility: Examining the Links
Pages 23-48
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From page 23... ...
, the relationship between education and fertility is much more complex. The underlying pattern most commonly shows a negative relationship, although positive relationships at very low and very high levels of schooling have been demonstrated.
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From page 24... ...
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.
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From page 25... ...
Therefore, it is important to consider individual-level data when attempting to identify the ways in which women's education influences fertility. Throughout the 1980s and l990s, a large number of studies, often based on data from the World Fertility Surveys and Demographic and Health Surveys, have addressed the issue.
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From page 26... ...
argues that women who move around of their own volition may have lower status in their society, and Amin (1996) describes how in Bangladesh, family planning workers often wear an elaborate burqa or veil to compensate for any loss in status due to moving around.
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From page 27... ...
rY ~ - ~ ~ o 1 o is: ~ Hi ~ o o ~ c - L ~ 27 ~ E O·t O 1 _ \ \ ~ i_ .e E o _ ~ e c o E -, 3 ~ / \ ~1 _ .
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From page 28... ...
The relationship between primary education and desired family size, on the other hand, is almost universally negative, whether or not the primary education is completed (Jejeebhoy, 1995~. Both incomplete and complete primary education also tend to be associated with later age at marriage and increased contraceptive use (see Westoff et al., 1994~.
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From page 29... ...
Women in that region with secondary plus education have higher fertility than do women with no education in Asia. It should be noted here that the association between secondary education and fertility may be attributable to the fact that in many developing countries, those girls who attend secondary school form a highly select group that might be expected to have lower fertility for other reasons, such as higher socioeconomic status.
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From page 30... ...
This influence may be informal, with these women serving as role models for other family members, friends, and neighbors, or it may be institutionalized through their role as family planning workers, government ministers, and civil servants careers to which their education gives them access. The informal role is more likely among upwardly mobile women from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds and the latter among the socioeconomic elite.
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From page 31... ...
and the presence of an active family planning program. It is likely, of course, that countries with a strong program of mass education will also have a strong family planning program, and thus it may be difficult to separate out the influence of each (Mauldin and Ross, 1991~.
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From page 32... ...
In most cases, countries in which women with incomplete primary education have a substantially lower total marital fertility rate than women with no education are those classified by Mauldin and Ross (1991) as having a strong or moderate family planning program effort in 1989 (see Table 2-1~.2 In Botswana, for example (Lesetedi et al., 1989)
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From page 33... ...
33 classified as having a strong family planning program effort, among women married for 0-19 years, those with incomplete primary education had a total marital fertility rate 8.8 percent below that of women with no education. In countries such as Nigeria, Burundi, and Liberia, where the marital fertility of women with incomplete primary education was found to be substantially higher than that of women with no education, family planning effort was classified as weak, very weak, or none.
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From page 34... ...
Yet children who have had some education are better equipped than their noneducated counterparts to recognize written text and the fact that it is likely to contain some sort of message, and those who have completed primary education will probably have achieved a substantial level of literacy. These children are thereby brought into contact with health education, family planning, and other media information.
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From page 35... ...
In communities that have health systems and family planning programs, primary education establishes a foundation for further information received within the community, and thus can have an indirect impact through an increased ability to "hear the message" of family planning programs or through improved health for individuals or their children. As Caldwell (1994)
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From page 36... ...
This observation illustrates the complexities involved in trying to untangle the education-fertility relationship. Formal health education in secondary schools increasingly includes family planning.
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From page 37... ...
At the same time, however, religious leaders in some countries have become involved in spreading messages about family planning and the benefits of small families. Schooling may also exert a social influence by exposing students to the outside world and the media, either while they are attending school or later, especially if schooling results in the opportunity to live away from the home and the immediate family environment, as often happens in parts of West Africa.
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From page 38... ...
On the other hand, in the 19931994 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (Mitra et al., 1994) , the duration of full and exclusive breastfeeding was shorter among women with incomplete primary education than among those with no education, but the median duration of any breastfeeding was over 36 months for both groups.
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From page 39... ...
Better-educated husbands are in turn more likely to hold ideals that are consistent with smaller families, improved health, and family planning (see also Basu, this volume)
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From page 40... ...
Where desired fertility is lower, however, women with greater autonomy are more likely to be able to implement their family-size desires and will be less influenced by other family members. The probability of ideal family size decreasing will depend to some extent on the strength of a country's family planning program.
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From page 41... ...
Among women with 5 years or less of education, 53 percent performed manual labor, and fewer than 1 percent were in managerial or professional occupations. Thus it can be seen that secondary education can give women access to an entirely different range of employment and to jobs that are far more likely to be economically and psychologically rewarding.
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From page 42... ...
Education, particularly secondary education, is expensive, and parents with such ambitions for their children may thus have fewer children. However, employment opportunities may not exert a negative influence on marital fertility in some settings.
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From page 43... ...
For example, in the Middle East, mass education is relatively prevalent, but women's opportunities for cash employment are very poor; in Bangladesh, there is a strong family planning program, but a relative absence of mass female education. Generally, however, completed primary education appears to have a stronger negative relationship with fertility than does incomplete primary education.
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From page 44... ...
The effects of secondary and higher education are probably more universally generalizable since it appears that context is less important at these levels. As a result of skills and knowledge gained from secondary and higher education and the greater prospects that result, women may be better able to make independent decisions and to implement fertility control even in the absence of a family planning program.
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From page 45... ...
Juarez 1995 The impact of women's education on fertility in Latin America: Searching for explanations. International Family Planning Perspectives 21(2)
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From page 46... ...
Mason 1985 Multilevel effects of socioeconomic development and family planning programs on children ever born. American Journal of Sociology 91(3)
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From page 47... ...
Ross 1991 Family planning programs: Efforts and results, 1982-1989. Studies in Family Planning 22:350-367.
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From page 48... ...
Nyblade 1994 Marriage and Entry into Parenthood. Demographic and Health Surveys Comparative Studies No.
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