Mother's Education and Effect of Son Preference on Fertility in Matlab, Bangladesh

This analysis follows earlier research that hypothesized and substantiated that, in a society with strong son preference, its effect on fertility would be conditional on the level of contraceptive use. Present analysis of the prospective fertility experience of 22,819 women of reproductive age durin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Population research and policy review 1994-09, Vol.13 (3), p.257-273
Main Author: Chowdhury, Mridul K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bangladesh
Birth Control
Birth Rate
Child Sex Preferences
Children
Contraception
Daughters
Demography
Educational Attainment
Environmental Education
Family Planning
Family Size
Female fertility
Fertility
Fertility and Family
Higher Education
Mortality
Mothers
Population Education
Population Trends
Sex Bias
Sons
Women's education
Womens education
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Summary:This analysis follows earlier research that hypothesized and substantiated that, in a society with strong son preference, its effect on fertility would be conditional on the level of contraceptive use. Present analysis of the prospective fertility experience of 22,819 women of reproductive age during 3.5 years in Matlab, Bangladesh, shows that this effect is higher among mothers with postprimary schooling versus those with primary or no education. The higher effect conforms with the known positive relationship of contraceptive use with maternal schooling. However, this increase when contrasted with the idea that education promotes modern values, including gender equality, suggests that education in Matlab, with its traditional slant, is not resistant to son preference. In a poor, traditional society with low status for women, schooling alone is not enough to motivate women to abandon low esteem for daughters though schooling promotes child survival. But if preference for smaller family size increases, promoted by education including such modern values as gender equality, then sex preference, although it cannot be completely removed, will have minimal effect on fertility as in most developed countries.
ISSN:0167-5923
1573-7829
DOI:10.1007/BF01074337