Sex, Gender, Becoming - PULP

94 Kammila Naidoo
that countries with underdeveloped economies, hindered by
constraints which kept fertility high, would in time follow the trend
of European countries that had experienced incipient mortality and
fertility decline. When historical evidence failed to support this
assumption the focus turned to broadly-defined ‘cultural’ variables
such as language, religious affiliation and women’s education and to
alternative explanations such as those linked to diffusionism and
‘ideational change’ 4 — as well as the New Household Economics
arguments linking demand for children to ‘costs’ and ‘prices’. 5 An
exhaustive overview of contending and contesting positions is not
possible here. However, it might be important to note that whilst the
assumptions of structural change of classic transition theory were
superseded by often more micro-level and household based analyses,
these were still located within the framework of modernist arguments
about rational decision-making on family size and the roles of
knowledge, modern values and new technologies and their
contribution to declining fertility rates. What remained absent was
more meaningful and complex treatment of ‘women’ or ‘gender’ in
the demographic literature. Whilst statistics ‘on women’ increased in
volume the emphasis initially was largely on descriptions of ‘women’s
role’ and ‘women’s status’ notwithstanding the fact that both
concepts were being severely criticised within feminist discourse. 6
More crucial shortcomings, though, relate to the fact that
reproductive behaviour and fertility outcomes were rarely studied
within the context of power inequalities at the societal and domestic
level or as a consequence of conflicting gender interests. 7 Nor was it
common to see efforts at ‘situating fertility’, that is, ‘to show how it
makes sense given the socio-cultural and political economic context
in which it is embedded’. 8
African reproductive regimes are commonly discussed as fertility
maximising regimes reflecting universal marriage, high values placed
on large families, resistance to fertility limitation and consequently
strong desires for large numbers of children. 9 However, in the 1990s
the signs of declining fertility in many African countries raised
questions about many of the assumptions and preconceived notions of
African fertility. Debate raged on about the particularities of fertility
4
J Cleland & C Wilson ‘Demand theories of the fertility transition: An iconoclastic
view’ (1987) Population Studies 5 42.
5 G Becker ‘An economic analysis of fertility’ in National bureau of economic
research, demographic change and economic change in developed countries
(1960) 10.
6 S Greenhalgh ‘Anthropology theorises reproduction: Integrating practice, political
economic, and feminist perspectives’ in S Greenhalgh (ed) Situating fertility:
Anthropology and demographic inquiry (1995) 157.
7 N Kabeer Reversed realities. Gender hierarchies in development thought (1994).
8
S Greenhalgh in Greenhalgh (n 5 above) 17.
9 RJ Lesthaeghe Reproduction and social organization in sub-Saharan Africa (1989).