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Demographic and Health Survey 2009-10 - Timor-Leste Ministry of ...

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pathways: its negative association with desired family size <strong>and</strong> its positive association with women’s<br />

ability to meet their own family-size goals through the effective use <strong>of</strong> contraception.<br />

Table 15.<strong>10</strong> shows how women’s ideal family size <strong>and</strong> their unmet need for family planning<br />

vary by women’s status indicators. The data indicate that there is a positive association between ideal<br />

family size <strong>and</strong> two <strong>of</strong> the three empowerment indicators. The relationship between ideal family size<br />

<strong>and</strong> decisionmaking is as expected: women who participate in no decisions have higher ideal family<br />

size (6.2) than women who participate in any decisions (5.7 or lower). There is little association<br />

between ideal family size <strong>and</strong> attitudes towards wife beating. On the contrary, ideal family size is<br />

highest among women who believe that a woman can refuse sexual intercourse with her husb<strong>and</strong> for<br />

all specified reasons (5.2 children) <strong>and</strong> lowest among women who believe that sexual intercourse<br />

cannot be refused for any <strong>of</strong> the three reasons (4.5 children).<br />

Table 15.<strong>10</strong> Women’s empowerment <strong>and</strong> ideal number <strong>of</strong> children <strong>and</strong> unmet need for family planning<br />

Mean ideal number <strong>of</strong> children for women age 15-49 <strong>and</strong> the percentage <strong>of</strong> currently married women age 15-49 with an<br />

unmet need for family planning, by indicators <strong>of</strong> women's empowerment, <strong>Timor</strong>-<strong>Leste</strong> <strong>2009</strong>-<strong>10</strong><br />

Empowerment indicator<br />

Mean ideal<br />

number <strong>of</strong><br />

children 1<br />

Number <strong>of</strong><br />

women<br />

Percentage <strong>of</strong> currently married<br />

women with an unmet need for<br />

family planning2 For For<br />

spacing limiting Total<br />

Number <strong>of</strong><br />

currently<br />

married<br />

women<br />

Number <strong>of</strong> decisions in which<br />

women participate 3<br />

0 6.2 90 12.5 7.5 20.0 95<br />

1-2 5.6 718 14.0 12.1 26.1 765<br />

3-4 5.7 6,846 21.3 <strong>10</strong>.1 31.4 7,047<br />

Number <strong>of</strong> reasons for which wife<br />

beating is justified 4<br />

0 4.9 1,702 23.2 8.3 31.5 895<br />

1-2 5.0 2,881 22.0 9.2 31.3 1,867<br />

3-4 5.0 5,357 19.9 <strong>10</strong>.3 30.3 3,414<br />

5 5.0 2,682 18.7 12.1 30.8 1,730<br />

Number <strong>of</strong> reasons given for refusing<br />

to have sexual intercourse with<br />

husb<strong>and</strong> 5<br />

0 4.5 2,374 19.7 11.6 31.2 876<br />

1-2 4.9 3,767 20.1 9.9 30.0 2,484<br />

3 5.2 6,481 20.9 <strong>10</strong>.2 31.1 4,546<br />

Total 5.0 12,622 20.5 <strong>10</strong>.2 30.8 7,906<br />

1 Mean excludes respondents who gave non-numeric responses.<br />

2 See Table 7.3.1 for the definition <strong>of</strong> unmet need for family planning.<br />

3 Restricted to currently married women. See Table 15.5.1 for the list <strong>of</strong> decisions.<br />

4 See Table 15.6.1 for the list <strong>of</strong> reasons.<br />

5 See Table 15.7.1 for the list <strong>of</strong> reasons.<br />

Although there is no clear linear relationship between unmet need <strong>and</strong> women’s<br />

empowerment, the data show that unmet need is highest among women who participate in three to<br />

four household decisions. Again, educated women <strong>and</strong> those belonging to the highest wealth quintile<br />

are less <strong>of</strong>ten participating in all specified households decisions, which translates to their having a<br />

lower unmet need for family planning.<br />

There is no clear relationship between unmet need <strong>and</strong> women’s belief that refusing sexual<br />

intercourse <strong>and</strong> wife beating is acceptable for any reason.<br />

Women’s Empowerment <strong>and</strong> <strong>Demographic</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Health</strong> Outcomes | 223

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