The Bixby Center Chair and Professor Ndola Prata MD, MSc presented research on women's empowerment and fertility decline in Angola at the African Population Conference in Lilongwe, Malawi. She co-authored this work with Bixby Center Executive Director Karen Weidert MPH.
Research paper title: Can Women’s Empowerment Accelerate Fertility Decline in Angola?
Abstract: Women’s empowerment has been associated with lower fertility. Angola, a country in middle Africa has a TFR of 6.2 and has not yet undergone fertility transition. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether women’s empowerment in Angola is associated with fertility preferences. More specifically, we assess which dimensions of empowerment influence fertility preferences, and if so, do fertility preferences differ by age. Our hypothesis is that empowered women have preferences for smaller families and that empowerment influence on fertility preferences is more critical for younger women. Using data from Angola DHS 2015-2016, we construct three empowerment dimensions: socio-cultural, control over sexual and reproductive health, and decision making. Results show that when adjusting for other socio-demographic and reproductive factors, only the socio-cultural dimensions of empowerment are associated with the desire to have no more children and only among the younger women (15-34 years of age). A decline in fertility could contribute greatly to faster declines in both maternal and child mortalities. It could also help accelerate demographic transition and allow the country to benefit from the demographic dividend. Although many factors can be associated with high fertility, it seems that younger and more empowered women in Angola are more likely to desire to stop childbearing. More exploration on the factors associated with fertility preferences, including qualitative studies, using a reproductive justice lens should be conducted?
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