Gender and population

This paper focuses on my field experiences from Turkey Demographic and Health Surveys, Turkey Maternal Mortality Survey, and extensive use of qualitative research on family planning and induced abortion in Turkey since 1993. During the surveys, I had the opportunity to gather substantial amounts of information about women’s everyday experiences in relation to traditional practices, approaches to health and health care, and women’s attitudes and emotional contexts. The narratives of women included heartbreaking and tragic experiences due to traditional gender norms within the families. In this paper, I examine the effect of patriarchal/gender hierarchies on the experiences of the brides in relation to infant mortality data through a qualitative approach based on observations, field notes, and in depth interviews with women. The research questions the impact of the culturally determined gender and age hierarchies within these extended families on the liminal life of infants and their mothers in Anatolia. How do these relationships determine the life courses of the infants during their initial years? The concepts of ‘liminality’ and development of ‘personhood’ frame the theoretical grounds to further articulate bride/mother/infant visibility and invisibility within these families and the experiences of infant mortality.

This study has chiefly focused on analyzing the child sex ratios in districts of Madhya Pradesh by estimating the number of district wise sex selective abortions in the period of 2004-2011 using indirect methods. Further, the contribution of sex differentials in child mortality and sex–selective abortions to sex imbalance in (0-6) age group is also obtained. The study has found that Prenatal Sex selection appears to have played major role in causing the deterioration observed in child sex ratios in state, Excess female mortality among children contributes only moderately to the deficit of girls. 282850 total missing girls are estimated in state during the period 2004-2011 out of which 184864 (65 %) are contributed by Sex selective Abortions and 97985(35 %) by excess female child mortality. In light of decreasing fertility, developed districts of state having high contribution of Sex Selective Abortions and less developed tribal districts having high contribution of excess female child mortality in total missing girls of state. Analysis found alarming districts where the share of Sex selective abortion is very high (above 90%) so that state should focus on those districts to protect worsening of situation and to save lives of future missing girls and their contribution to society instead become victim of an insensate acts.

Based on 1% National Population Sample Survey in 2005 and the Sixth Census in 2010, using life table technique and Sullivan method, we analyze the changes of life expectancy (LE), disability free life expectancy (DFLE), and their disparity among Chinese male and female elderly. The results show that female elderly have higher LE than their male counterparts, and gender disparity in LE decrease with age; the gender disparity in DFLE decrease with age in lower age, the male elderly have higher DFLE than their counterparts in higher age. The comparison indicates that gender disparity in LE of Chinese elderly is expanding in lower age, and that in DFLE of Chinese elderly is expanding in each age. The proportion of DFLE in LE of male is higher than female, however, unlike the findings from previous research, our research results indicate that the proportion of DFLE in LE is increasing and the increasing speed of DFLE/LE is higher among female elderly than that among male elderly at all age stage between 2005 and 2010.

This study critically investigates the suitability of United Nations’ composite indices and other related measures – among which the Gender Inequality Index (GII) just released in 2010 – to capture gender inequalities in the context of “highly developed” countries, focusing on the case of Europe. Our results indicate that many of the gender gaps in health and education variables have either vanished or even reversed, thus questioning their appropriateness to capture women’s disadvantage in Europe and inviting to construct region-specific measures. Alternatively, parliamentary representation and labor force participation are variables with large gender gaps that highlight important dimensions where women disadvantage prevails. Different cross-section and cross-time associations between economic growth and gender equality are generally not statistically significant – or at most weakly correlated – at European level. This is basically due to the fact that the gender gaps included in UNDP gender-related indices reached their normatively desirable values long ago, therefore leaving no room for further improvement.

Context: women’s Autonomy has a significant linkage with utilization of maternal health care in India, but still women’s health especially maternal health is neglected issue. In particular how women’s autonomy within household may affect the receipt health care utilization deserves further exploration.
Method: Data on ever married women aged 15-49 from the National Family Health Survey 2005-06 third round (NFHS-3) is used analysis in this study. Three dimensions of women’s autonomy within household has been explored – decision making within household regarding how to spend money, exposure to newspaper or magazine and freedom for mobility.
Results: less than half of women reported the participation in decision making regarding how to spend money in household not having significant relationship with health care utilization. Exposure to newspapers or magazine linked to an increased likelihood of receiving antenatal and delivery care, freedom for mobility also having positive relationship with health care utilization
Conclusions: less women’s autonomy within household constrains women’s access to antenatal and delivery care The strong association of women’s education with maternal health care utilization highlights the need for took efforts to improve the girl’s education.

Given high population sex ratio for 60 years since China’s first population census in 1953 and skewed sex ratio at birth for 30 years, we review the determinants and expose the new patterns of gender imbalance in China. Using censuses data from 1982 to 2010, we adopt demographic method to decompose the population sex ratio into three factors --- population age structure, sex differential in mortality, sex ratio at birth. The results indicate that sex differential in mortality had little influence on high population sex ratio and started to decline the population sex ratio by 0.65 since 2000. The rapid aging of population age structure takes the main effect on declining population sex ratio, competing with the skewed sex ratio at birth which becomes the leverage to raise the population sex ratio in contemporary China. We also evaluate the quality of census data by comparing models with and without the effects of sex-selective underreporting, the under-enumerate of girls in census data is confirmed. Finally, we focus on the new trend of sex ratio at birth --- shifting pattern of sex-selection at birth, and approve that the decline in sex-selection at second birth fully offset by the increase in sex-selection at first birth, given the sex ratio at birth rising from 116.9 in 2000 to117.9 in 2010.

Women empowerment is a major concern in the developing world and can be considered as a sensitive indicator of the development of the society. The objectives of the study are to assess women's empowerment across the religious groups in India and also to analyze the levels, differentials and determinants of women decision making power in India. Empowerment is measured in terms of decision making at household level and mobility. There is apparent religion-wise variation in women's decision-making with regards to household, health, economic and mobility. The study indicates that most Muslim women in India have low empowerment and control over their own lives and such constraints are not felt equally by non-Muslim women. While other factors like, women education, place of residence, sex of the household head and religion have strong relationships with women's decision-making and freedom of movement, impact of husband’s education have negative or rather weak impact.

The study reveals that merely one-tenth of the young women have comprehensive knowledge about sexual and reproductive rights. A sizable number of them have experienced domestic violence as well as non-consensual marital sex. Women not only have a little say in contraceptive decision making but also, half of them are unaware of the other contraceptive methods before adopting any specific method. The qualitative data reveals that the women succumb to the traditionally expected gendered role of 'real woman' often resulting into adverse reproductive health outcomes such as unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and psychological stress, owing to domestic violence, marital discord, tension to natal family, economically dependence status, and gendered socialization. As the young women are in a disadvantageous position in almost all fronts of sexual and reproductive rights, special emphasis ought to be laid on them in every program, which should lead to gender equity.

The autonomy of the woman emerges as a central and separate dimension to consider in understanding health behavior. In fact, several authors have highlighted its influence on the use of maternal health care in developing countries. However, if the individual autonomy is relevant, it nevertheless deserves to be placed and analyzed within the social context in which the woman lives. Not only the social context and their norms have a direct influence on the use of care, but in addition, it shapes and structures the women autonomy. Using DHS data from Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, we measure the norms related to violence against women and assess their impact on women autonomy. Confirmatory Factor Analysis show a good model fits for the measure of the latent variable related to violence against women (Cronbach's alpha > 0.8; RMSEA <0.04 and CFI>=0.96). In addition, controlling for women attitudes toward wife beating, we found that women who live in area where acceptance of wife beating is high are more likely to be of low autonomy.

Studies on the contextual determinants of maternal health services use have highlighted the importance of sociocultural norms that limit the role and place of women. In this study, we develop a measure for latent sociocultural norms related to violence against women and analyze their influence on the use of prenatal care and skilled birth attendance in rural Africa using DHS data from Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Measured from respondents’ perceptions of violence against women, our sociocultural contextual variable has good statistical reliability (Cronbach's alpha > 0.8). Moreover, it has a negative influence on women's autonomy in all countries, hence its utility for identifying sociocultural norms in these contexts. The results of multilevel structural equation models show that these sociocultural norms have a significant negative influence on the use of skilled birth attendance in Uganda and Ghana (results for prenatal care used are not yet available). In Ghana, we also note an indirect effect that involves reducing women's autonomy. These results have important implications for policymakers.