Schooling opportunities for girls as a stimulus for fertility change in rural Pakistan

This paper explores many possible factors explaining the diversity of family-building experiences prevalent in rural Pakistan using primary data collected for this purpose in rural Punjab and Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP). The goal was to visit a range of rural villages or communities that refl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Economic development and cultural change 2003-04, Vol.51 (3), p.677-698
Main Authors: Sathar, Zeba A, Lloyd, Cynthia B, Mete, Cem, Haque, Minhaj ul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Allgemein bildende Schule
Birth Control
Children
Children & youth
Communities
Community schools
Contraception
Costs
Couples
Cultural change
Desire
Development studies
Economic conditions
Economic development
Education
Educational Opportunities
Elementary school students
Elementary schools
Enrollments
Families & family life
Family Planning
Family size
Fertility
Fruchtbarkeit
Girls
Girls education
Ländlicher Raum
Multivariate analysis
Mädchen
Pakistan
Parents & parenting
Primary Education
Private schools
Public schools
Rural areas
Schooling
Secondary schools
Sexual Inequality
Shadow prices
Social change
Studies
Villages
Women
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Summary:This paper explores many possible factors explaining the diversity of family-building experiences prevalent in rural Pakistan using primary data collected for this purpose in rural Punjab and Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP). The goal was to visit a range of rural villages or communities that reflect diverse socioeconomic and schooling conditions to explore the possible links between the schooling environment at the community level and family-building patterns. The results of a multivariate analysis are presented. Opportunities for primary schooling in the community clearly play a role in influencing the fertility transition in rural Pakistan. In particular, gender equity in the schooling environment, as measure d by the ratio of the number of girls' public primary schools to boys' public primary schools, has a statistically significant effect on the probability that a woman will express a desire to stop childbearing and, by extension, on the probability that she will operationalize those desires by practicing contraception.
ISSN:0013-0079
1539-2988
DOI:10.1086/375519