Women's Reproductive Decisions in West Africa: Dynamics of Control Within and Beyond the Household

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Title: Women's Reproductive Decisions in West Africa: Dynamics of Control Within and Beyond the Household
Creator: Sarah Castle; Alayne Adams
Date: 1987
extracted text: n.

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WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE DECISIONS IN WEST AFRICA:
DYNAMICS OF CONTROL WITHIN AND BEYOND THE HOUSEHOLD

by Sarah Castle and Alayne Adams

I Introduction

The lack of a significant fertility decline in Africa to date has been attributed to sociocultural forces
which preclude a change in the direction of intergenerational wealth flows, an intensification of childrearing styles, and an increase in female status within the community and the household (Caldwell
1977, Caldwell et al. 1992). Using West Africa as a case study, this paper seeks to define the
components of women's status both within and beyond the household, and their impact on reproductive
decisions and outcomes. A framework is developed which recognizes women's multiple roles, and
describes how their position, autonomy and control may vary within each of these separate domains
and evolve over the life-cycle.
The chapter will argue that so-called 'fixed' cultural practices governing fertility-related behavior and
fixed fertility outcomes are often side-stepped or manipulated either formally or informally. The
capacity for individual women to gain and apply reproductive knowledge, to control their fertility and to
desire, or to want to stop, bearing and/or rearing children may vary as their marital and reproductive
careers unfold. In particular, the ability to manipulate both the process and outcomes of reproductive
behavior is strongly related to women's social power and status derived from lifecycle changes in their
roles and spheres of activity and influence. Pressure for a woman to start, to continue or to cease
having children, may also vary as the lifecycle of her household evolves with its reproduction, growth
or fissure.
The chapter will first discuss and refine the concept of the household, paying particular attention to the
influence of household function and process rather than simply size and structure on reproductive
decision-making. Following a discussion of the sociocultural and economic context of reproduction,
the impact of intrahousehold relations on women's status, defined as women's power, prestige and
access to, and control, over resources, is assessed. Both 'between' and 'within' gender relations are
described in terms of their implications for women's status. In particular, it is argued that betweengender inequality is distinguished by differential control over material resources, while within-gender
disparities are characterized by unequal access to, and control over, non-material resources. Turning to
social and economic relations beyond the household, it is argued that women's access to extrahousehold
networks both contributes to, and is a consequence of, their status within the domestic domain and the
wider environment. This, together with their intrahousehold status determines their reproductive
performance and priorities. Drawing on Oppong's seven roles of women, the paper concludes by
developing a framework for the analysis of forces within and beyond the household and over the
lifecycle which determine women's reproductive strategies. By emphasizing the multiple and changing
nature of women's roles and their impact on, and contribution to, women's status, this framework
accommodates the dynamic and adaptive nature of reproductive decisions both over time and across
women's multiple domains of activity and influence. The implications of this framework for population
policy and programs are then discussed.

•1

II Definition of household

Demographers using survey or census data usually focus on household definitions which center on the
provision of food from a common granary, the use of a common hearth or cooking pot, or the
enumeration of all members who look to the same person as their household head (UN 1980).
Emerging from these snapshot surveys is the view that households are clearly bounded and
unchanging, and organized in terms of a gender based hierarchical structure. Little information is
solicited about the social relationships of those defined as belonging to the same household, nor about
the external networks of individuals on whom they rely, or alternatively, whom they support.
Anthropologists, on the other hand, prefer the term "domestic domain" which not only relates to the
preparation of food, but also to processes such as the socialization of children, the transference of
property, and the maintenance and reproduction of household values and influence (Bender 1976,
Goody 1976).

Existing descriptions of the household have had difficulty accommodating the tension between 'kinship'
which is essentially structural, and 'function' which relates to what households actually do. Structural
classifications of household size and profile (stem, joint and multiple family) are useful but do not tell
us what goes on within households, and especially how internal social, economic and power
relationships may influence reproductive behavior. Proponents of New Household Economics have
attempted to redress this weakness by seeking to capture inequalities between individuals in the same
household in terms of their differential access to material resources (Becker 1976, Sen 1990, 1991).
The conceptualization of issues such as 'bargaining' and 'cooperative conflict' have enabled the
documentation of intra and extrahousehold economic transactions in a more realistic way. However, to
date, little has been done to describe the inter-personal relations and inequalities in social power around
which these economic transactions are centered, and their impact on other aspects of personal behavior,
particularly on reproductive performance and preference.

Refining the concept

While recognizing that size and structure is a starting point for categorization of household type (see
Table 1), in assessing resources for, and constraints upon, reproduction, it is necessary to focus on the
internal dynamics and external networks in which the household is involved. In West Africa, the
household is a continually evolving system characterized by the following features:

•

fluid internal social structure due to migration, marriage, household fission; differ in jointedness/
segregation and openness/ closure (Oppong 1974)

•

porous external boundaries: the household is involved in a wide system of networks cross-cutting
and interlocking with other domestic units (Scrimshaw 1991). This interface with the wider world
is sometimes paradoxical: e.g. women in female headed households may have greater autonomy
within their domestic sphere but very little social power outside it.

•

biological and social household formation due to the frequent separation of child rearing and child
bearing (Isiugo-Abanihe 1985, Page 1989, 1989, 1990, Castle 1992). For example, in Sierra
Leone "methods of family formation are predominantly post-natal and socially managed and
2

therefore customary 'cost and benefit' calculuses of biological fertility have little meaning in daily
life" (Bledsoe, 1990:97). Mechanisms such as child fostering reduce the immediate economic
burden of high fertility without reducing overall fertility rates. Evidence suggests that theories of
fertility decline that center on changes in the direction of wealth flows between parents and children
may be misleading in areas where the financial costs of raising children do not fall primarily on the
biological parents. Thus, in addition to the biological regulation of fertility through contraceptive
use, the social regulation of family size and composition through fostering must be considered an
important mitigating factor in child rearing and its associated expense.
•

importance of intergenerational factors influencing household reproduction such as the demands
and expectations of elders. The reproductive decisions of older generations may influence current
actions. For example, in rural Mali and in other cultural contexts with a high degree of nonmatemal child rearing, women who themselves were fostered as children are more likely to foster
their own children out (Gordon 1987, Castle 1992).

Table 1 household types using data from Human Relations Area Files: definitions of female
headed, nuclear, extended horizontal/ vertical, polygamous/ monogamous household
types and prevalence figures for West Africa)

Given the fluid and adaptive nature of the West African household, it may be more useful to consider
household function and dynamics as opposed to size and structure when considering factors which
constrain and facilitate women's reproductive strategies. In this respect, the household may be viewed
as a functional system within which individual women have different producing and consuming roles,
not just of material resources such as land, food and cash, but also of non-material resources such as
time, labour and information relating to their bodies and reproductive health. As Bruce (1989) notes,
both material and non-material resources may be used as bargaining currencies. Evidence suggests
that bargaining between men and women mainly involves the exchange of non-material for material
goods (e.g. labour for food), whereas bargaining between women more frequently involves the
exchange of non-material resources (e.g. labour for time). These currencies are not always equally
valued as they often reflect the relative power and authority of individual members. For example,
among women, bargaining power and currency may be a function of their roles and status, and the
domain of transaction-whether within or beyond the household. In short, 'fixed' household
characteristics such as size and structure are the result of reproductive decisions which reflect the
strength and direction of power relationships rooted in the household's political economy.

IH Sociocultural and economic context of reproduction in West Africa
Larger sociocultural and economic forces influence household productive and reproductive objectives
and ultimately, women's health and reproductive experience. In West Africa, these forces sustain and
reward high fertility, and uphold the value of children (Caldwell and Caldwell 1987). Fertility
decisions reflect inter-relationships between biological and sociocultural factors. For example, in many
societies a prolonged birth interval is said to be ensured by a ban on sexual activity given the view that
intercourse during breastfeeding will turn breastmilk bad. However, culturally 'fixed' practices such as

3

these are often side-stepped or negotiated1. Similarly, fixed fertility outcomes such as 'completed
family size' may be manipulated socially, for example by child fosterage, or by deliberate or benign
neglect (Scrimshaw 1987, Monod Cassidy 1985).
•

Sociocultural Imperative: traditional belief systems which emphasize the survival of patrilineal
descent are important sociocultural forces in West Africa (Caldwell and Caldwell 1987). High
fertility may be interpreted as a response to demographic risk which increases the probability of
descent and the perpetuation of the lineage. Contrariwise, reproductive failure, infertility, and
subfecundity are frequently matters of shame and reproach. More important than sheer numbers of
surviving children, is the degree of social control that senior household members wield over them.
In her description of family management among the Bambara in Mali, Toulmin (1993) talks of
'child failure' when children fail to fulfill the expectations of their parents. For example, the
migration of a son deprives the household of labour and creates expectations of future financial
gain among household members. However, 'child failure', manifested by the loss of control over
returning migrants, is evident in their tendency to migrate permanently, or to declare only part of
their earnings to the senior members; preferring instead to invest in ostentatious status goods, or
private enterprise for individual rather than communal gain”.

•

Economic Imperative: Given that much of West African society is involved in subsistence
activities which depend almost exclusively on human labor, the reproduction of the labor force is
critical to household survival. In rural areas where a shortage of labor (not land) represents a
constraint to production, large family size and many offspring (biological and fostered) facilitate
increased production and the diversification of income. The value of children also inheres in their
future obligation to provide old age security to their parents. Hoddinott (1992) develops an
econometric model of the determinants of assistance to elderly households in West Kenya and
concludes that higher levels of assistance are strongly correlated with larger numbers of children;
parents using inheritable assets to induce higher levels of care and monetary assistance.

The economic value of women is a function of their proven productive and reproductive capacity.
Among Fulani communities in Mali, bridewealth was sometimes paid after the birth of the couple's first
child to ensure that the marital family's fertility expectations could be met. Similarly, Box 1 illustrates
how the monetary value of a divorced, but proven fertile, woman who was also an active trader,
increased in the eyes of competing suitors. Given this tendency to view women's fecundity in
economic terms, women's self-esteem and perceived self-worth or self-efficacy are frequently defined
by her reproductive performance (Scrimshaw and Scrimshaw 1981).

1 See Bledsoe's (1987)" Tinned milk and child fosterage; side-stepping the post-partum sexual taboo in Sierra
Leone" for a discussion of this.
2
A survey in the Seno-Mango region of Mali asked Fulani and Dogon women to describe numerically what they
considered to be 'a lot' of children. When asked what disadvantages were associated with the number of children
they cited, all referred to a lack of social control over many offspring who might, for example, abandon them for
labour migration and never come back. Rather than problems with sheer numbers of children, it was their
potential lack of obedience or obligation that was perceived as difficult (Castle 1992). Similarly, a study of
Bambara agriculturalists in central Mali found that only 2 of 148 households interviewed associated household
food insecurity with too many mouths to feed (Adams 1992).
4

Changes in Women's Roles and Reproductive Strategies:
West Africa is typified as a classic example of fertility maximization; given the widespread antipathy/
ambivalence to fertility control (especially among men). Practices such as early and universal female
marriage, polygynous unions which ensure the supply of husbands, pressure on widows of
reproductive age to remarry, the major social and economic importance of children support the goal of
fertility maximization (Lesthaeghe 1989). Balancing these are compensatory fertility-controlling
practices which include pressures against premarital fertility, widespread post-partum female sexual
abstinence, and a common resort to terminal female abstinence once women become grandmothers
(Caldwell and Caldwell 1977, Lesthaeghe 1981).
However, there are signs that traditional
reproductive regimes in West Africa are being destabilized:
Since the 1980's, national economies have faltered due to structural adjustment, the rising costs
of imports, declining commodity prices and increasing food insecurity. One result of prolonged
economic distress are changes in the perceived costs of children, especially in countries like
Ghana and Nigeria where increased school fees, and high unemployment have challenged the
social and cultural basis of high fertility.

Rapid urbanization has resulted in an unprecedented influx of young migrants, and their
fertility, to the urban setting. According to the latest United Nations estimates, 15% of the total
population in West Africa are located in major urban centers.
An exacerbation of social stratification due to differential wealth, education, and wages, a
growing cleavage between modem and informal sectors of the economy, and changes with
respect to land tenure and lineage control have further undermined the traditional props of the
reproductive regime, and are reflected in a "destabilization of the traditional fertility and
marriage patterns" (Lesthaeghe 1989).

The increasingly important role of national legislative reform e.g. enforced paternal child
support in Ghana, and the emergence of nationally coordinated women's organizations e.g.
Union des Femmes Malienne which, for example, lobbies to outlaw female circumcision in
Mali.
However, this process is bound to be fragmentary as some elements of the old reproductive regime
erode more quickly than others, or prove to be more resistant to change. Studies among the urban
educated and migrants, for example, have indicated directions and dimensions of change in the midst of
continuity: while there is some evidence of increased individualism, and a dwindling of the rights and
duties of the conjugal family in some spheres of activities (Oppong 1982b), the household and lineage
remain central to social and economic life in West Africa. In some cases, traditional household
structures and relationships have been synchretically adapted and redefined. For example, the
preference for modem nuclear units has in many urban areas has led to the relegation of polygynous
wives to 'deuxieme bureaux' or second households, and not to the abandonment of polygyny.

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Table 2 National figures for West Africa on total fertility rate, age at first marriage,
participation in work force, contraceptive use, maternal mortality, % population with
access to health care (changes in last 3 decades?)

Box 1 Description of how the monetary value of a divorced but proven fertile woman who was
also an active trader, increased in the eyes of competing suitors.

IV Intrahousehold power relations and women's status
Between gender relations:

The earlier elaboration of the broad social and economic forces which sustain the high fertility and the
large kinship group provide strong a priori arguments regarding the organization of power within the
household. In West Africa, marriage is not a contract between two individuals, but a definitive transfer
of rights from one lineage to another. With the payment of brideprice, rights to sexual access, and
female reproduction and labor (agricultural and domestic) are passed on from the natal to marital
household. Even after the death of the husband, the women is frequently obliged to stay with the
marital lineage via the institution of levirate.
Gender relations within the household are defined by the segregated nature of conjugal roles between
husband and wives, and between males and females more generally. It has been argued that early
arranged marriages perpetuate the authority of senior generations and discourage the development of a
strong husband-wife bond. Conjugal intimacy and jointedness is further discouraged by the persistence
of strong sibling rivalry, the influence of in-laws, the coresidence of kin, the prevalence of polygyny,
and the frequent separation of spouses due to migration (Oppong 1987).

Despite the apparent subordination of women's social and political power to the husband and his family
with marriage, considerable economic independence is maintained. The separation of men's and
women's financial budgets in West Africa is well documented and appears to persist even among the
urban and highly educated (Caldwell 1989). Given that women's financial and time budgets are
entirely separate, not only from those of men but from those of other women, theories of altruistic or
cooperative inter-personal relations within the household may be misleading. Thus household
circumstances that appear diverse or heterogeneous, may in fact produce surprisingly homogenous
fertility and mortality outcomes (Arowolo 1981, Desai 1992)

Within gender relations:

Given the separation of men's and women's time and financial budgets and spheres of influence, it may
be more useful to consider how women differ from each other rather than how they differ from men
within the household when determining their socioeconomic, political and knowledge resources for
reproductive decision-making. Here, differences in control over material and non-material resources
may correspond to between and within gender inequalities of power and influence. For example,
although differences in ownership of, and access to, land, labour and capital may typify differences
between men and women within the household, differences in control over time, information and
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labour within the domestic domain may be more indicative of differences between women, and have
more of an impact on their reproductive preference and performance.

The ability to gain and apply information about child spacing or limiting family size may be a function
of a woman's social relationship to the 'keeper' of such information (Walldan 1987). For example, a
mother-in-law may control her daughter-in-law's knowledge of, and access to, modem family planning
services in order to pursue her own vested interest in maintaining the latter's high fertility. Thus the
motivation or ability to use knowledge about birth spacing or limiting fertility may vary with women's
age and stage in both their marital and reproductive careers. In the Gambia, Bledsoe and Hill (1992)
find that women choose contraceptives according to three main criteria - firstly, the degree of
confidentiality that particular contraceptives afford, secondly, the speed with which fecundity can
resume after contraceptive use terminates and thirdly, the possibility of impairing fertility in the long
term. The relative importance of such considerations varies with a woman's stage in her life cycle
which determines her motivation to use modem contraceptives and governs her preferred method.

The key to understanding factors which constrain and facilitate women's reproductive decision-making
lies in the interaction between women's ecnomically productive roles and their status within the
household. In cases where agricultural or domestic labour is for, and controlled by, other family
members, women may be constrained by a lack of time or freedom to pursue their own fertility goals.
By contrast, production for themselves may give them greater financial, social and political power, and
make them more able to gain and apply information to control their fertility. Independent of the effects
of education and socioeconomic status, studies of women's productive roles in relation to their roles in
the family have found that women with low autonomy are not as likely to innovate or take risks (Miles
Doan and Bisharat 1990). Lifecycle changes in the relative balance of individual versus household
production, and the degree of social, and economic power wielded in the domestic and external
environment are illustrated in Table 3.

Table 3: Lifecycle stages of women (from childhood to widowhood)

V Social and economic relations beyond the household
Women's status and autonomy derived in large part by the degree to which she has access to extra
household resources: information, services, material resources. Given the extreme covariance of
rainfall and production in West Africa, kin and exogamous marriage networks provide a vital source of
security and assistance to households or individual women members in need. Household structure and
location are important determinants of the networks available to women. Women's multiple roles
(Oppong 1983) which vary in relative importance at different stages of the lifecycle, determine the
degree of inter and intrahousehold movement, activities and organization of space. For example:

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Role in marital family: in relation to men (wife, daughter-in-law) or to other women (mother-in-law,
cowife, daughter-in-law)

Role in other households: e.g. as daughter, grandmother
Role in the external world: e.g. as market trader, employee
But the balance between extrahousehold commitments and interests, and intrahousehold obligations
must be carefully negotiated for if over-stepped, tragic consequences for women's reproductive health
and well-being might result (Box 2).

Box 2: Fulani woman who gave inheritance gifts to her brother and sister instead of to her own
children and was abandoned by her husband and mother-in-law when seriously ill after
her tenth delivery which was still born.

VI Women's health and reproductive decisions:
The framework presented in Figure 1 builds upon Oppong 's approach for analyzing women's
reproductive decisions. Taking into consideration women's multiple roles as mothers, wives,
domestics, kin, workers, community participants and individuals, Oppong proposes that women's
health and reproductive decisions be viewed in terms of the relative satisfaction and resources accruing
via each of these roles, and the ways in which they compete, complement or change in different
contexts (Oppong 1983). Developing this framework, we assess the relative importance of each of
these roles in vesting women with power, prestige and control over material and non-material resources
at various stages of the life-cycle.

According to this framework, women's reproductive goals are determined by social and economic
needs and obligations which correspond to the relative importance of the roles described above at
various stages of the life-cycle. Women's social needs relate to the sociocultural value placed on
fertility and children; the desire to fulfill the reproductive expectations of self, husband and lineage and
to avoid the shame of infertility, subfecundity. For example, young women seek to begin child-bearing
early to gain prestige and approval from their husband and his family. Similarly, women whose
daughters and daughters-in-law have begun their reproductive careers prefer, and are able, to gain
prestige and autonomy through economic activity rather than through child .bearing. Women's
economic need for reproductive success relates to the role of children as a source of security in old age.
Labor inputs from children are often essential for successful expansion of productive and distributive
activities (Oppong 1987, Robertson 1974).

However, women are often subjected to conflicts of interest regarding their current and future
reproductive needs and goals. Despite a frequently verbalized preference for boys, observational work
in northern Mali indicates that women who had a young daughter over about eight years of age in the
household, benefit immensely from help with child care, food preparation and assistance with
household tasks. Thus although patriarchal and patrilineal systems of marriage and inheritance mean
that women require sons for old age security, daughters often accrue greater immediate advantage.
8

The fostering of young girls as domestic labor therefore symbolizes women's multiple goals and the
variety of strategies they pursue to maximize both short-term and long-term security.

Figure 1 Framework for the analysis of women's reproductive decision-making: multiple roles
and lifecycle changes

VII Conclusions and policy implications

Conclusions:

households are characterized by fluid internal structures, porous external boundaries, and
biological and social formation.

household reproductive strategies are governed by changing household functions and processes
rather than by structural characteristics
internal household dynamics reflect the bargaining of a variety of currencies both 'between' and
■within' genders

'fixed' culturally specified fertility-related practices and 'fixed' fertility outcomes are in reality
side-stepped and manipulated
women's reproductive strategies reflect their status (defined by their power, prestige and
control over material and non-material resources) which correspond to their changing roles
over the lifecycle.
the multiple roles of women correspond to different domains of activity and influence both
within and beyond the household

In short, it is important that all elements of domestic organization and as well as broader sociocultural
and economic forces be understood before meaningful statements can be made about the roles,
relationships and authority structures in the domestic setting which influence women's reproduction and
health. In West Africa, the persistence of high fertility reproductive regimes reflect past, current and
future sociocultural and economic needs. Even with the increasing modernization of many African
urban areas, traditional household roles have not been abandoned but rather redefined. Adaptive
household strategies that syncretically absorb 'modem' values and trends whilst retaining traditional
systems and structures yield complex household arrangements. Individuals may have multiple
obligations and accountabilities depending whether they are acting or interacting in the modem or
traditional sector, or within or beyond household boundaries.
In this context, the key to understanding factors which facilitate or constrain women's reproductive
decision-making lies in examining their multiple roles within the framework of the lifecycle. As
separate roles replace each other or exist concurrently, women's social and economic priorities shift or
diversify both within and beyond the domestic setting. Status from one role can sometimes be

9

substituted for status gained from another role. For example, infertile women unable to gain status
from children, often turn to commerce or trading and instead gain status, cash and prestige from their
economic activities.

In terms of policy and program activities, it is necessary to fundamentally reappraise the concept of 'the
household' as a unit of analysis and intervention. As we have shown, households are dynamic and
porous entities. An individual woman can move in and out of her household's boundaries, and even be
affiliated to several households at the same time where she may occupy different roles and have access
to different resources, support, and information to control her fertility.

Secondly, it is necessary to recognize that the formation of program interventions around a notion of
"maternal" and child health and the assumption that child bearing and child rearing are done by the
same person may be misleading in areas of high fostering prevalence. We have shown that both fixed
demographic outcomes such as 'completed family size1 can be manipulated socially by institutions such
as fosterage. Similarly, 'fixed' cultural practices such as the post-partum sexual taboo can also be side
stepped with important consequences for reproductive health and control.

It is also clear that there is a need to challenge disempowering structures and relations simultaneously
and at multiple levels: interpersonal, conjugal, and societal. Rather than identifying power in terms of
domination over other, it may be more constructive to identify and enhance the capacity of women to
increase their own self-reliance and internal strength (Moser 1989). With the objective of supporting
women's rights to determine their reproductive goals and outcomes, and their ability to gain control
over crucial material and non material resources, policies and programs should place less emphasis on
increasing women's status relative to men, but rather, seek to empower women in relation to each other
in social and material terms.
Finally, policy efforts to enhance women's reproductive decision-making must address the structural or
practical constraints which determine her use of time, her social and economic autonomy and ultimately
the degree to which she controls her own body. The practical empowerment of women will thus be
facilitated by policies and programs that meet women's practical needs in the domestic arena, such as;
1. the reduction of domestic workloads through the improvement of cereal processing technology, the
supply of fuel and water, and child care services; 2. enhancing household livelihood security through
the provision of women’s income generating opportunities and the enforcement of paternal financial
obligations; 3. community-level provision of reproductive and community health and childcare services
and other basic needs (Moser 1989). It is most important that practical programs recognize and
facilitate the many competing roles and needs of women as they evolve over the course of their lives .

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I
I
Figure 1

WITHIN
HHOLD

lifecycle stage
wife
mother
domestic

BEYOND
HHOLD
interhhold
community

WOMEN'S
STATUS

daughter

ft

daughter-in-law

cowife

mother-in-law

ft

ft

ft

ft
ft

ft
ft

ft
ft

ft

ft

ft
ft
ft

ft
ft
ft

kin

individual
worker
community member

ft

ft

ft
ft
ft

power

ft

ft

ft

ft

prestige
resource control

ft
ft

ft
ft

ft
ft

ft
ft

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