Women's Fears and Men's Anxieties: The Impact of Family Planning on Gender Relations in Northern Ghana

The Navrongo experiment, a family planning and health project in northern Ghana, has demonstrated that an appropriately designed, community-based family planning program can produce a change in contraceptive practice that had been considered unattainable in such a setting. Simultaneously, however, e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studies in Family Planning 1999-03, Vol.30 (1), p.54-66
Main Authors: Bawah, Ayaga Agula, Akweongo, Patricia, Simmons, Ruth, Phillips, James F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Anxiety
Anxiety - ethnology
Anxiety - psychology
Attitude to Health - ethnology
Behavior Modification
Birth Control
Children
Coitus - psychology
Contraception
Contraceptives
Factors
Family Planning
Family planning services
Family Planning Services - methods
Fear
Fear & phobias
Female
Females
Focus Groups
Gender relations
Ghana
Health aspects
Health Care Services
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans
Husbands
Interpersonal Relations
Male
Males
Marriage - ethnology
Marriage - psychology
Married couples
Men
Men - psychology
Middle Aged
Nurses
Opposite Sex Relations
Population
Sexes
Social aspects
Social Attitudes
Social conditions
Social impact
Spousal abuse
Violence against women
Wives
Women - psychology
Womens health
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Description
Summary:The Navrongo experiment, a family planning and health project in northern Ghana, has demonstrated that an appropriately designed, community-based family planning program can produce a change in contraceptive practice that had been considered unattainable in such a setting. Simultaneously, however, evidence suggests that newly introduced family planning services and contraceptive availability can activate tension in gender relations. In this society, where payment of bridewealth signifies a woman's requirement to bear children, there are deeply ingrained expectations about women's reproductive obligations. Physical abuse and reprisals from the extended family pose substantial threats to women; men are anxious that women who practice contraception might be unfaithful. Data from focus-group discussions with men and women are examined in this report and highlight the strains on gender relations resulting from contraceptive use. The measures taken to address this problem and methods of minimizing the risk of adverse social consequences are discussed.
ISSN:0039-3665
1728-4465
DOI:10.1111/j.1728-4465.1999.00054.x