Women's status and fertility in Kenya

Abstract

This study examined the effect of the women status on fertility. This study uses the 1998 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) results to establish whether the status of the woman at the micro and macro levels affects fertility measured by the number of children ever born. A woman status was measured using a combination of four variables two at the individual level; women's education and occupation and two at the household level spousal communication on family planning and decision making on money use. Other household variables where her husbands educational attainment and occupational characteristics. Other variables included as women status proxies' demographic variables such as; her age at first marriage, contraceptive use or known use, age at first birth, her age and desired family size. Socio-cultural variables such as; her exposure to the mass media and region of residence.

The results reveal that women's status has a negative effect on fertility, those with the highest status were shown to have the lowest fertility at the multivariate level.

The study recommends that the government put in place policies that improve the general status of women to reduce fertility and that future research in these areas should involve qualitative research methodologies to improve on the data so collected.