NEGATIVE DISCREPANT FERTILITY AND RELATIONSHIP OF GENDER IN LATIN AMERICA - THE BRAZILIAN CASE

The reduction in fertility to below replacement levels in Less Developed Countries (LDC), and to extremely low levels in Europe have been associated to a more equilibrated gender relationships. Faced with low level fertility in Latin America, increasing number of women who desire having a number of children over what they had and the changes in legislation relating to the duties of biological father in Brazil, it becomes extremely important to understand how reproductive motivations of each member of the couple interact to form a joint action in childbearing particularly the influence of partners in planning and reproductive behavior. The aim of this work is to verify the unsatisfied demand for children among formally married or cohabiting women from a gender perspective in Brazil. Data analyzed came from 1996 and 2006 Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in Brazil. The outcomes show that negative discrepant in fertility increased in the period considered and the highest ratio occurred among women with partners who desired fewer children than them. These findings demonstrate the need to study the role of the husbands' opinion in decision-making for children in the presence of discrepant fertility in LDC, particularly, starting with the case of Brazil where fertility is below replacement level.