Open AccessWomen's Empowerment and Reproductive Choices
Author(s) -
Syed Mubashir Ali,
H. B. Siyal,
Mehboob Sultan
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v34i4iiipp.1137-1150
Subject(s) - empowerment , family planning , child marriage , fertility , population , equity (law) , patriarchy , women's empowerment , economic growth , reproductive health , political science , gender studies , sociology , law , demography , economics , research methodology
The 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population andDevelopment (lCPD) in their Programme of Action calls for promotinggender equality and equity and the empowerment of women. Furthermore,the conference also recognises the basic rights of all couples andindividuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing, andtiming of their children, as well as the right to the information andthe means to do so [Sadik (1994)]. The need for such a programme ofaction arose in view of the fact that in many countries, includingPakistan, women are generally least empowered and hence they havenegligible rights to decide about the number of their children.According to the 1990-91 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey, over 54percent women either wanted to stop having children or wanted to wait atleast two years before having another child [Ali and Rukanuddin (1992)].However, in practice, all of these women were not protected; instead,only 12 percent were practising contraception [Shah and Ali (1992)]. Thelow incidence of family planning practice on the part of the women isnot so much due to the dearth of family planning services; rather it isdue to resistance by husbands, in-laws, and other peer pressures.Demographers like Caldwell (1982) and Cain et al. (1979) also contendthat in patriarchal societies it is the patriarchy which militatesagainst the fertility decline.