Browsing by Author "Emire, Guday"

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    Socio-Cultural and Economic Conditions Influencing Women's Status and Role in Family Planning Decision-Making: The Case of Kotebe District (Woreda28), Addis Ababa
    (Addis Ababa University, 1998-06) Emire, Guday; Megeressa, Dr. Gemetchu
    This thesis is an attempt to examine the possible socio-cultural and economic conditions influencing women's status and role in family planning decision-making with specific reference to Kotebe District (Woreda 28), Addis Ababa. The thesis discussed the theoretical issues and perspectives with regard to population growth as a population problem and the mechanisms of population controL A significant number of useful studies have been conducted which account for aggregate fertility trends or explain individual fertility behaviours with some degree of power. But here the most central issues are: Do the respective societies and their individual members articulate the population problem and its relationship to development in its aggregate form? Why do couples desire large families which render the notion of fertility regulation irrelevant to their lives? For those couples who perceive the need to regulate their fertility, what are the subjective and economic costs of adopting contraceptive technology? It can be firmly asserted that the weakness of fertility research to date is not one of the poor theoretical formulation, but its failure to place fel1ility within its local socio-cultural and economic context. Here it should be noted that couples behave rationally within their respective socio-cultural and economic context~ and their perceptions which are functions of the respective circumstances might be ditlerent from those of policy makers or scientists in a laboratory or library. In other words, high fel1ility persists in much of the world not because parents are foolish but because they are not disadvantaged by large families. The primary goal of this research was to examine the status and role of women in family planning decision-making. The available literature on this topic has been identified and, to some extent, established four possible loci for this mechanisms (a) the change in the fertility belief system, which lowers the society's optimal family size in recognition of such factors as decreased mOl1ality or decreased child utility. (b) A downward shift in the actual and perceived economic value of children to their parents, with respect to their perceived socio-emotional value, resulting in lower desired family size. ( c) A cognitive shift in the direction of increased rationality and sense of personal control over the environment, making family planning decision and implementation possible. (a) An increase in couple communication 011 fel1ility matters, which makes achieving fertility goals more efficient and etlective. This thesis assumed that all four approaches above mentioned are valid to some extent. They are woven into a hypothesized three stage fertility decision models which were developed by Christine (1985). Today pure disciplinary models are somewhat rare. Social, cultural, economic, psychological and other variables are pm1s of the more successfitl models, in recognition of the complexities and subtleties of the issue. In ShOI1, economic, social, cultural and psychological factors interact on feI1ility. Economic circumstances affect the value orientations of the socializing generation, set constraints on family building patterns, and open or close possibilities for cultural diffusion Educational levels of the cohorts, their mentality, and their economic planning effect fertility decisions. The central theme of this study was that the status of women and their role in community and family decision-making, including the timing and numbering of bil1hs and choice of contraception, have an important bearing on improving the standard of living, the success of family planning and a long term reduction in the fel1ility level of a coulltry. , , /I FUl1hermore, the research sought answers to the fiJllowing more specific questions in line with Christine's (1985) fel1ility decision-making model These were (1) To what extent are women's fel1ility goals motivators of their behaviour, and to what extent are they mere reflections of circumstances? (2) Is the fel1ility decision process like that of other family decision processes, or in what ways does it differ? (3) To what extent is the fel1ility decision process an active one, that is, to what extent are fertility decisions made versus simply being left up to fate? (4) What is the extent of a woman's participation in and control of the family decision-making process, and does this extend to decisions about her own fertility? (5) What gives women the ability to assert their individual fertility goals, especially in the face of a hostile family environment? (6) What factors constrain women's involvement in f~1I11ily planning decision-making and how can we challenge these constraints? The present study assumed that women's control over their own fertility decision process depends substantially upon attributes which they possess which give them prestige in the eye of the family and the community, as well as upon the resources which they control which are the basis of their present and future security Resource and attributes are both material and non-material ownership of land or implements of production, the skills to use those implements, influential kin ties, affiliation with one's spouse, and the satisfaction of social norms for childbearing, among many others. These all may function to grant women power in the family decision-making process in general and in the n1mily planning decision-making process in particular. However, hereTt should be noted that the socio-econolnic conditions by ti1emselves cannot explain women's fel1ility behaviour. In our local social and cultural context, women's fertility behaviour is greatly influenced by the socio-cultural values attached to childbearing. Moreover, the persistent traditional negative attitudes towards a 'barren' woman is one of the socio-cultural imperatives influencing women's involvement in family planning programmes