Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Conceiving reproduction: Trans-disciplinary views
- The social management of fertility
- Gender, class, and clan: The social inequality of reproduction
- 7 Women's empowerment and fertility decline in western Kenya
- 8 High fertility and poverty in Sicily: Beyond the culture vs. rationality debate
- 9 History, marriage politics, and demographic events in the central Himalaya
- 10 Economics 1, culture 0: Fertility change and differences in the northwest Balkans, 1700–1900
- Afterword: (Re)capturing reproduction for anthropology
- References
- Index
7 - Women's empowerment and fertility decline in western Kenya
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Conceiving reproduction: Trans-disciplinary views
- The social management of fertility
- Gender, class, and clan: The social inequality of reproduction
- 7 Women's empowerment and fertility decline in western Kenya
- 8 High fertility and poverty in Sicily: Beyond the culture vs. rationality debate
- 9 History, marriage politics, and demographic events in the central Himalaya
- 10 Economics 1, culture 0: Fertility change and differences in the northwest Balkans, 1700–1900
- Afterword: (Re)capturing reproduction for anthropology
- References
- Index
Summary
Two recent news stories about Kenya have turned international attention to the changing African family. The most far-reaching of these news items was the September 1989 announcement that fertility transition had begun in Kenya (N.Y. Times International 1989). This much-anticipated announcement was based on data from the 1989 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) which indicated that, for the second time in ten years, Kenyan fertility had declined and contraceptive use had increased (NCPD 1989; van de Walle and Foster 1990). The KDHS presented reliable evidence of “the first significant decline in fertility in Africa ever,” corroborating other data showing that Kenya, Botswana, and Zimbabwe are the first three African nations to move toward lower fertility. Authors comparing DHS data from eleven African countries focused on women's education and relative economic stability as factors that might explain the trend:
It is noteworthy that these countries have been relatively less affected by the economic crisis of the recent decades, and have a more educated female population, than the other countries that had a DHS survey.
(van de Walle and Foster 1990:13)The other major news story from Kenya, ultimately less important but perhaps more revealing of the internal dynamics of Kenyan society, gained international attention in August, 1991.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Situating FertilityAnthropology and Demographic Inquiry, pp. 157 - 178Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995
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