Women’s empowerment has become a focal point for development efforts worldwide and there is a need for an updated, critical assessment of the existing evidence on women’s empowerment and fertility. We conducted a literature review on studies examining the relationships between women’s empowerment and several fertility-related topics. Among the 60 studies identified for this review, the majority were conducted in South Asia (n = 35) and used household decision-making as a measure of empowerment (n = 37). Overall, the vast majority of studies found some positive associations between women’s empowerment and lower fertility, longer birth intervals, and lower rates of unintended pregnancy, but there was some variation in results. In many studies, results differed based on the measure of empowerment used, sociopolitical or gender environment, or sub-population studied. This article is one of the first evaluations of the literature assessing the relationships between women’s empowerment and fertility. We identify several key issues that merit further investigation.
Summary This paper reviews the literature examining the relationship between women’s empowerment and contraceptive use, unmet need for contraception and related family planning topics in developing countries. Searches were conducted using PubMed, Popline and Web of Science search engines in May 2013 to examine literature published between January 1990 and December 2012. Among the 46 articles included in the review, the majority were conducted in South Asia (n = 24). Household decision-making (n = 21) and mobility (n = 17) were the most commonly examined domains of women’s empowerment. Findings show that the relationship between empowerment and family planning is complex, with mixed positive and null associations. Consistently positive associations between empowerment and family planning outcomes were found for most family planning outcomes but those investigations represented fewer than two-fifths of the analyses. Current use of contraception was the most commonly studied family planning outcome, examined in more than half the analyses, but reviewed articles showed inconsistent findings. This review provides the first critical synthesis of the literature and assesses existing evidence between women’s empowerment and family planning use.
Language is one factor which may contribute to film rating assignments in the United States. However, linguistic concerns have been largely reduced to isolated instances of profanity. Furthermore, many US films feature characters under age 18, mirroring the audience demographic most restricted by ratings. This thesis examines peer language of teenage characters in two films, exploring the extent to which non-explicit dialogue may also contribute to a film's rating. To this end, Systemic Functional Linguistics is employed to analyse textual and interpersonal features of dialogue in How to Train Your Dragon (PG) and The Hunger Games (PG-13). Results show that Dragon illustrates a protagonist's linguistic shift in gaining acceptance among a pre-established peer group.Meanwhile, Games emphasizes its protagonist's linguistic adaptation through several idiosyncratic relationships. Findings suggest that a stronger grasp of language might be needed to follow the underlying tones in the PG-13 film.
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