Free «The Role of Women in Family Planning» Essay

This week’s readings majorly focused on the understanding of fertility decline. I was personally interested in the position women occupy in deciding on whether and when to bear children in a family and its effects on fertility. However, Campbell and his colleagues note that this position has been reduced to lower level due to such factors like cultural practices and educational endowment, which, in some way, prevent women from exercising the powers that they hold in the family. Given that women bear the greatest brunt when it comes to the size of the family, why is it then that women, especially in developing and poor countries, continue to give birth to many children compared to their counterparts in developed countries even after getting access to information and education?

Victoria and her colleagues note that it is evident that the average number of children in a family in developing countries has dropped for the last two decades. Nevertheless, the number is still far too high when compared to that in developed countries. This is despite the fact that women in these countries almost have the same level of access to education and family planning facilities.

According to Potts, one can argue that the average family in poor developing countries contributes greatly to the world population. In developing countries, where access to education and job opportunities are overemphasized, one may find it difficult to explain why women who have average education and good jobs equally do have larger families when compared to the same group in developed countries.

In conclusion, the inability of these women to control their fertility may be found in the cultural practices and beliefs that these women are inculcated so much into the lack of exposure to genetically modified foods and other stuff that are thought as inhibitors of fertility and their low level of enlightenment and interpretation. However, there is need to explore this phenomenon further with the view of coming up with conclusive results.