ERIC Number: ED150047
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1977-Dec
Reference Count: 0
Women and Population Growth: Choice beyond Childbearing. Worldwatch Paper 16.
The paper explores the relationship of women's childbearing attitudes to educational and work opportunities. Program administrators for family planning, educational programs, and national development efforts in developing countries must realize the importance of the social and cultural environment in designing programs to reduce population growth. Section one discusses the impact of education on women's attitudes toward childbearing. Schooling exposes women to new kinds of information, can promote positive changes in self-image, can change the nature of maternal ambitions, and can motivate women to pursue activities outside the family. Section two explores the apparent relationship between opportunities for women to work and low birth rates. Employment may discourage childbearing because of the burdensome dual workload of working mothers. Young women's earning abilities may encourage parents to delay arrangements for early marriages for their daughters. Employment also can offer women various degrees of economic and psychological independence. Section three urges population program administrators to realize that status, income, security, and emotional satisfaction may be reasons for women to have families, but that education and work opportunities can satisfy those needs as well. Successful programs of community education and development for women in Korea and Cuba are described to illustrate this point. (Author/AV)
Descriptors: Adult Education, Attitude Change, Birth Rate, Community Role, Comparative Education, Developing Nations, Educational Development, Educational Opportunities, Employment, Family Life, Family Planning, Females, Foreign Countries, Population Growth, Self Concept, Social Influences, Social Mobility, Work Experience
Worldwatch Institute, 1776 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 ($2.00, paper cover, quantity discounts available)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Sponsor: United Nations Fund for Population Activities, New York, NY.
Authoring Institution: Worldwatch Inst., Washington, DC.