A cross country analysis of ideal family size, family planning, and women’s values and beliefs

Hani A. Guend, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique - Urbanisation Culture et Société (INRS-UCS)

I examine Muslim women’s fertility. Change in peoples’ worldviews is hypothesized as a trigger of processes behind driving fertility transition. Developmental idealism and Islamic reformism fuel this process. I use DHS samples of ever-married women to model the associations of women’s values and beliefs (V&B) with ideal family size (IFS), and current use of family planning (FP) in Turkey, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. I apply multinomial logistic regressions with simple covariates and with complex constructs such as Moral Individualism, Pragmatism, Conservatism, and Fundamentalism. Women’s V&B matter less for IFS and FP than their empowerment. Husband’s education remains an important determinant but more important are husband’s beliefs. In line with Cleland’s thesis, use of FP is not influenced by woman’s age, by her and her husband’s education or by their occupations. Nor do religion, residence, or parity matter. What matters is exposure to knowledge about FP, and husband’s approval of its practice