Keyword and activities list approaches to measuring women's work are compared. The two approaches were applied to the same population of women in Egypt in two consecutive surveys. The widely used keyword approach underestimates women's work rates, disproportionately excluding poor and poorly educated women, particularly those working in nonformal jobs. The activities list approach captures these missed economic activities and also the multiple jobs women hold simultaneously. Survey measurement of women's work must be improved to fully account for women's contributions to economic life and to better understand the relationship of work to such other important variables and processes as reproductive change, child welfare, and economic development. Copyright (c) 2008 The Population Council, Inc..
In this study, the level and pattern of sex preference for children and its effects on fertility intention, fertility-regulating behavior, and fertility implications for women are investigated. Data are from a 1976 cross-sectional KAP (knowledge, attitude, and practice of family planning) survey and a three-year longitudinal study, conducted between December 1976 and 31 December 1979, of vital events for 860 married women of childbearing age from Companiganj, Bangladesh. The results show that although son preference is very strong in this area, more than 98 percent of women desire at least one daughter. However, women with a higher proportion of sons are less likely to want more children and are more likely to practice contraception and to be sterilized. Although women with a higher proportion of sons have somewhat lower fertility in the prospective follow-up period, the net effect of son preference on fertility is not significant, possibly because of the low level of contraceptive use in the population.
Data are used from two surveys of currently married women aged 15-44 conducted in 1979-80 and 1990-91 to explore the changing impact of gender preference on modern contraceptive use and on fertility in rural Menoufia, Egypt. The significantly positive effects on contraceptive use of having one or more sons in 1979 remained constant in 1990. Families without living sons had higher odds of having a birth than did families with two or more sons during 1979-80, and these relative odds were even higher in 1990-91 among families with three or more living children. The implications of these findings for subsequent declines in aggregate fertility are discussed.
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