State of World Population 2012 - Country Page List - UNFPA

y the 1990s was accompanied by increases in
women’s education and labour force participation,
particularly in the garment industry
(Kabeer 1997; Kabeer 2000). Access to labour
markets, credit markets and society more generally
allowed these women to renegotiate the
norms of purdah (female seclusion) that had
confined women in previous generations to
their homes and limited their voice in patriarchal
households.
These processes are also illustrated in a microlevel
study of community health-workers in
Matlab, Bangladesh, who played a key role in
the delivery of reproductive health care and also
benefited from employment in the programme.
Their own declines in fertility, improvements
in health, new employment opportunities and
wages combined to increase their status and
bargaining power in their homes and their
communities (Simmons, 1996).
Access to contraception itself can alter women’s
bargaining position in their households.
This is best illustrated in the case of sub-Saharan
Africa. Men and women in this region have
historically had divergent preferences regarding
ideal numbers of children. While women incur
direct physical and economic costs for bearing
and supporting children, for men the practice of
polygyny and child-fostering spread these costs
across multiple households. As a result, women
may prefer smaller families than their husbands.
Their ability to exercise their preferences however,
may be constrained by social norms that
favor high fertility and laws that require husband’s
consent to access contraception.
Declines in fertility and improved health
not only provide women opportunities to
reallocate time away from child-bearing
towards the labour force, but also towards
caring for other family members, such as the
t
Couple waiting for
family planning
counselling at regional
hospital in Cameroon.
© UNFPA/Alain Sibenaler
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