Patriarchy and men’s reproductive behaviour in Uganda

Tom O. Owuor, Pennsylvania State University

Despite the volume of work on the role men play in marital fertility decisions, few attempts have been made to derive direct empirical estimates of the role patriarchy plays on men’s fertility preference or dominance. A number of these studies have pegged the gendered difference in fertility preference as a pointer to relative dominance (e.g. Omondi-Odhiambo, 1997; Ezeh, 1991). The assumption of most of these studies is that this dominance is driven by patriarchal values, which with the ‘help of religion and culture is able to maintain and regulate a woman’s sexuality and reproduction and proscribed subordination to men’ (Fortier, 1975). Yet relatively little studies have tried to derive direct estimate of patriarchy influence on men’s reproductive behavior. In this paper, I employ structural equation model using the Uganda 1995\96 negotiating reproductive outcomes to examine the relation between patriarchy and men’s reproductive behavior.