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DOES POSSESSION OF ASSETS INCREASE WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN REPRODUCTIVE DECISION-MAKING? PERCEPTIONS OF NIGERIAN WOMEN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2010

JOACHIM C. OMEJE ,
SARAH N. OSHI  and
DANIEL C. OSHI
JOACHIM C. OMEJE
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
SARAH N. OSHI
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
DANIEL C. OSHI
Affiliation:
Anambra State University, Uli, Anambra State, Nigeria
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Summary

This study is based on a population-based, descriptive questionnaire survey, the objective of which was to elicit the perceptions of women in south-eastern Nigeria on whether possession of economic/household assets by women enhanced their capacity to negotiate reproductive issues with their husbands. The findings show that the respondents believed that possession of economic/household assets by women in their communities might not necessarily increase their negotiation power in their reproductive decision-making. Other factors tend to attenuate the effects of women's possession of economic/household assets on their reproductive bargaining power. Notable among these may be social norms that implicitly arrogate control of the assets owned by the conjugal couple to the man, even when they are bought by the women. Planners of reproductive health intervention projects, policy-makers and researchers need to be aware of such sociocultural specific phenomena, which do not fit with widely held international beliefs.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 101 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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