Gender inequality and fertility transition in Middle East: the case of Syria

The influence of the gender system on the fertility transition has been demonstrated by many studies especially during the last three decades. Since the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994 which stipulated that gender equality is a prerequisite for the achievement of fertility decline, gender issues became the subject of a public discussion particularly in developing countries where equity between the sexes is almost non-existent. This study aims to analyze the relationship between gender inequality and fertility transition in one of the Middle Eastern Arab countries: Syria. Our analysis of gender inequality and fertility is conducted at the aggregate level. We argue that variations in gender inequality across regions need to be considered in an analysis of regional variations in fertility in Syria. We used data from the published results of the census of 2004. The data include cross-sectional measures of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics at the district level for all of Syria. Our analysis was conducted on the population of 270 districts. Our results show that gender inequality exerts a major influence on regional variations in fertility.