The influence of female education, labor force participation, and age at marriage on fertility behavior in Bangladesh
Chaudhury, R.H.
Social Biology 31(1-2): 59-74
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0037-766X PMID: 6544003 DOI: 10.1080/19485565.1984.9988562Document Number: 304994
Data from the 1975 Bangladesh Fertility Survey were used to analyze the relationship between female education, labor force participation, and age at marriage on the 1 hand and fertility and use of contraception on the other hand. It was hypothesized that the 3 aspects of women's status would be positively associated with contraceptive use and negatively correlated with fertility. Education emerged as the variable most strongly correlated with contraceptive use; current use of contraception ranged from 8% among those with no education to 42% among women with a secondary education or above. A similar pattern was noted between age at marriage and contraceptive use. Current use increased from 11% among women married below the age of 15 years to 32% among those who married at age 22 years or above. On the other hand, current use of contraception was only 2 percentage points higher among women who had ever worked (14%) than among those who had never worked (12%). Age at marriage was found to be the most important variable explaining fertility behavior. Women who married under the age of 15 years had an average of 4.22 children compared to 1.77 among those who married at 20-21 years of age and 2.65 among those marrying at age 22 years or above. The number of children ever born declined from 4.15 among women with no education to 1.96 among those with at least a secondary school education. Labor force participation did not exert as strong an effect on fertility: women who had ever worked had an average of 4.24 children compared with 3.85 among those who had never worked. The general associations noted in this study were stronger among urban than rural women. These results point to a need to improve women's status, particularly female education, and also to raise the age at marriage to obtain more widespread use of contraception and lower fertility levels.