| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of female education on fertility.
To help this investigation the following variables were considered: female education
level, Age at first marriage, desired family size, place of residence, contraceptives,
infant and child mortality, Age of respondents, duration of marriage and employment
status.
The study is centred on women of reproductive ages between 15-49 years. The
information on those women was extracted from secondary data based on the Kenya
demographic and Health Survey of 1993.
Data analysis made use of cross-tabulation descriptive statistics and chi-square (x2
).
The findings of the study denote great disparities in fertility according to their female
education attainment.
Most women had primary education and few had attained higher education. This leads
to high fertility because those with higher education had the lowest fertility.
The desire for children declines with higher educational attainment and therefore there
is need to encourage female education. This means that many women still fall under
the bracket of high preference for children.
Education raises the age at first marriage and because many did not attain higher
education, marriage occurred in the adolescent ages. This encourages fertility.
The women with secondary and higher education were living in urban centres while
the ones with primary education and no education were living in the rural areas. There
is need to encourage education in women so as to expose them to job opportunities
within the urban centres.
IV
Contraceptive knowledge was wide but the usage was not satisfactory. There is need
to educate and bring awareness on contraceptives so that there can be acceptance
even among those women with low or no education.
Infant and child mortality was low among all the women who had any education. It
is notable that infant and child mortality was high among those women who had no
education.
Women with higher education were all living in the urban centres and were employed
and earning cash for work. This is an indication of the need to educate women so as
to improve their standards of living by allowing them to get opportunities to compete
for the available jobs.
The findings of this study highlight the need to reinforce the current policy of women
education in the country. There is a strong indication that education is a key factor in
changing the attitudes of women concerning fertility and equipping them with the
knowledge and advantages of attaining quality and not quantity families. The
government should formulate policies to support the existing ones so as to increase the
number of women who attain higher education in Kenya. This will uplift the standard
of living and status of women in Kenya. | en |
