BY: JIMOH MUJIB AKANNI, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN
Examining the relationship between gender relations and fertility level brings to our mind, two concepts that can be viewed from sociological perspective to aid easy understanding of the topic. The first is gender and the second; fertility. Analysis of these two concepts is the way of showing the relationship between gender relations and fertility level.
What is the meaning of gender? In Mary Holmes’ ‘What is gender? sociological approaches‘, she proffers the following:
‘Chris got up and went to the bathroom. Leaving pyjamas on the floor and turning on the shower, Chris stepped into the water. It was not a hair-washing day, so after a quick rub with the soap it was time to get out and dry off. After toweling and applying hair putty to the new short haircut, Chris dabbed on some moisturizing lotion and went to get dressed. Nothing special was happening today so jeans and a T-shirt would be fine. The only choice really to be made was between basketball boots or sandals’
When you read it, I imagine that you assumed either that Chris was a woman, or that Chris was a man. Yet, Chris is a shortened name which both Christophers and Christines use and Mary Holmes has not used any pronouns to indicate sex. There is nothing in this description that definitively identifies masculinity or femininity. You may protest that ‘real’ men do not use moisturizer, or that women are less likely to have short hair. Nevertheless, most people know of men who are into face creams and other such products and women who have short hair. Your decision is not defensible, but the point is that you made a decision. We do not know how to think about people as neutral; we always think about them as women or as men and we interact with them accordingly. If you have decided that Chris was a woman, go back and read the paragraph again and imagine Chris is a man. Does that change how you read it or what you think about Chris? Do you think it ‘typical’ of a man just to leave his pyjamas on the floor; do you feel a little titillated by imagining a naked man in the shower? Try to continue describing Chris’s day without giving away whether Chris is a man or a woman. It is very difficult to do. Whatever way, Chris is either a male or female. Gender is thus a concept that is used to explain the behavioral, cultural or psychological traits typically associated with one sex. We live in a world which is organized around the idea that men and women have different bodies, different capabilities and different needs and desire.
Historically, these differences were ignored and the primary focuses of sociological interest were men, with women making appearance only in the discussion of marriage and family. These differences were made known with the advent of ‘second wave feminism’ in 1960s. Betty Friedan’s (1963) ‘The feminist Mystique’ and Kate Millet’s (1970) ‘Sexual Politics’ critiqued this historical perspective. Therefore, one can conclude that gender relation refers to the set of cultural affiliation expected between the two genders.
What is fertility? Fertility is the birthrate of a population. It refers to the live births to women. It means the actual birth rather than the capacity(fecundity). Fertility depends on nutrition, sexual behaviour, culture and gender relation, timing, etc. According to Demena (2005), it is the reproductive performance of an individual, a couple or a group of population.
Gender determines the different roles that men and women play in a society, as well as the power relations in the household (Fiona Flintan 2011). As a term that refers to the system of relations between women and men, gender is socially constructed. In this respect, the concept designates behaviours, attitudes, roles, status…etc that societies assign to one or the other sex in a given socio-cultural setting and/or in a particular socio-economic and/or socio-political context to govern relationships among the sexes. This means that gender relations vary not only from one community to another (from the point of view of culture), but that they also vary according to different social classes at stake in a given society. According to (PBR 1999), gender relations and fertility are both dependent on development level of a society. So, according to Leete(1984), Europe is in the ‘Incipient stage of development’ while Africa is in the ‘Transitional stage of development’, thus the relationship between gender relations and fertility level in these two stages of development will be different.
In the Transitional stage that Africa finds itself, the fertility level is greatly affected by the relationship that has existed between the two genders. There is male gender superiority in this stage. As a group of women (interviewed in 2007) described:
…mostly it is the men who are responsible for the destruction of the environment in this area. These days, we find it difficult to get animal feed and firewood as well as other resources from the forests, which were easily available. It is the men who are selling the trees inside the enclosure for charcoal production and they are not listening to us when we tell them to stop this activity and find other alternative jobs. (Fiona Flintan 2011).
It is worth noting however that gender relations in Africa, are always patriarchal in nature and therefore necessarily male dominated. So whether in a matrilineal or a patrilineal community, or whether in the upper classes of society, men always impose themselves on women and insist on the subordinate status of women. From the time immemorial, male in this stage is seen to be superior to female. Women tend to be totally submissive to men (their father, brothers, husband, uncles…) and have hardly any decision-making powers nor the freedom of speech in public. Some common examples are that women easily yield to forced marriages; they have no political attributions and cannot inherit property (Annan Yao 1998). Also, girls in some traditional African societies are denied even the simple right to existence in the minds of their fathers who are the family heads! In the highly Islamic and patriarchal communities of Niger, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, etc, when men are asked the number of children they have, they only give the number of sons they possess and totally neglect any daughters born to them (UNICEF 2000). This superiority has thus gone a long way in affecting the factors that determine fertility. One of such factors that affects the fertility level is education. The gender relation in this stage is such that education is seen as not necessary for females, as such, early marriage is encouraged which affects fertility level. According to the United Nations (1995), African women have their first child at age 19 and the last child at age 37, compare with European women who have their first child at age 30 and the last child at age 37. Having child at 19 shows that female education is not put into consideration. Women in this stage marry when they are very young. The average age in this stage is below 20 years. While in the ‘Incipient stage’ the average is 23 years (United Nation, 1991). The women’s level of education affects fertility in many directions such as desire small family size because they prefer consumption items not related to children (Ranson, 1998; Rindfuss et al., 1999). Also, education increases women’s income so they prefer to be in the labor force rather than take care of children (Graff, 1989). Education does not affect fertility directly, but it acts through many variables. The most important supply effects of education are age at marriage, infant and child mortality, and contraception use (Shapiro and Tambashe, 1997). Several studies confirmed the strong negative relationship between parents of education and their fertility behavior (Nouri, 1983; Graff, 1989; United Nations, 1991; and Lesthaeghe & Willems, 1999). In Sub-Saharan Africa, most of the recent data proved that there is negative association between age at marriage, number of years in school, and fertility, while there is positive association between infant and child mortality and fertility (Shapiro and Tambashe, 1999). Al-Qudsi (1998) demonstrates that age at marriage, women’s education, women’s labor, and infant mortality are important determinants of fertility in all Arab countries. An examination of the educational system in Africa shows great disparities in male and female educational levels on the continent. A close examination of the Net Primary Enrolment Ratios (NPER) in various countries reveals blatant gender disparities (UNESCO 2000). This gender relation exhibited in this society has had impact on fertility level.
Another consequence that gender relation of African or transitional society has on fertility level is that there is early marriage. A woman’s age at marriage is an important factor of her age when her first child is born. Many studies found strong negative correlation between age at marriage and fertility (Luker, 1975; Osterud and Fulton, 1976) particularly in Muslim countries (Karim, 1997). Osterud and Fulton (1976) in their study in Massachusetts found that the increase in age at first marriage from 1730 to 1850 causes a decrease in fertility. Forced feeding is practised mainly in the ruling circles of the Moor society in Mauritania, in some communities of Niger (Arabs, Zarma) and in some ethnic groups of Northern Mali and Northern Burkina Faso. The custom consists of forcing girl children under 10 years old to absorb a lot of rich food, especially milk, to fatten them and get them ready for early marriage. They have to be beautified and also made to appear more mature than they really are in order to be “marriable”(Annan Yao). This practice of gender relation affects fertility level.
Another effect that the notion of male gender superiority that exists between the genders in the ‘Transitional stage’ where African countries find themselves brings is that the role of women is mainly for child bearing. Elizabeth Bott (1957), coined the term ‘joint conjugal roles’. In her analysis, she mentioned ‘segregated role’ which fits the African society. She describes the ‘segregated role’ as a situation where the man goes out to work and the woman stays at home to work. J. P. Clark in one of his plays; ‘The song of a goat’, whose setting is Deinogbo; a part in Eastern Nigeria is able to pass to the audience that child bearing is important in this society and that an infertile woman is treated with contempt. So, Tang Min’s words fits into the African society that: Having children appears to be the fundamental duty of women. If a woman can’t have a child herself, she must at least have one to adopt. Women and children, mother and child—these belong together as naturally as heaven and earth. In most of North Africa, women’s economic participation rate is only around 30 per cent, compared to around 45 per cent in ‘Incipient stage’ (high income) countries (World Bank, 2006). This means that in most cases women are less likely to have a paid job than men. Even where women now form a large portion of the workforce they continue to work in different jobs, under different conditions and generally receive less pay. This setting of ‘female child-bearing role’ which is part of the gender relation in the ‘Transitional stage’ will therefore go a long way in affecting the fertility level.
In the ‘Incipient stage’ where Europe finds itself, gender relation and fertility level is almost opposite the one in the ‘Transitional stage’ where Africa finds itself. Firstly, gender relation between the two sexes is not ‘man gender superiority’ and this accords women with the right of saying ‘NO’. Woody Allen once said: ‘I want to tell you a terrific story about oral contraception. I asked this girl to sleep with me and she said ‘no.’ This attribute which is present in this stage’s gender relation will surely affect the fertility level. Margaret Sanger (1879 – 1966) too also said: ‘No woman can call herself free who cannot choose the time to be a mother or not as she sees fit’. So, since the rights of the two genders are protected in this stage, then there will be reduction in fertility level. In the Ila-speaking people of Zambia, pre-marital sex on casual basis is encouraged. Girls are given houses of their own at harvest time when they may play at being wives with boys of their choice. It is reported that among these people, virginity does not exist beyond the age of ten (Ember and Ember, 1973). On the other hand, this premarital sex is strictly forbidden among the Tepoztlan Indians Mexico. From the time of a girl’s first menstruation, her life becomes confined. She should not speak to or encourage any man in the last way (Oke 2006). This difference between the two stages shows their effect on fertility level.
As this stage resists the notion of ‘man gender superiority’, there exits literacy increase among women and the notion that education is meant for the superior male does not occur. In the United Kingdom, for example, six times more women enrolled in higher education in 2003/04 than in 1970/71, so that around 59 per cent of undergraduates are now women (Office for National Statistics, 2006: 38). This is buttressed by the several studies which do indeed find that educated women have more freedom in decision-making and action on a range of domestic and extra-domestic matters (see, for example, Basu, 1992; Morgan and Niraula, 1995; Vlassoff, 1996; and the reviews in Jejeebhoy (1995) and Sathar (1996). To sum it up, all the traditional and crude features of the gender relation eminent in the ‘Transitional stage’ which affect fertility level are absent in the ‘Incipient stage’.
In conclusion, when the sociology of gender emerged as a specific field in the 1970s the concern was to show any differences that do exist between the sexes to be exaggerated or indeed socially constructed. The claim that men and women are simply ‘naturally’ different was called into question by examining how understandings of those differences vary across cultures and change throughout history (Laqueur, 1990). That is why I have made the attempt of distinguishing the differences of the gender relation that is evident in both the African and European socities and their effect on fertility level. An African peasant woman used to carrying heavy loads, for example, is likely to be physically stronger than a young American man who spends all day in front of the television and his computer. (Fausto-Sterling, 2002a; 2002b; Hird, 2004; Kessler and McKenna, 1978). Thus ‘male is stronger than female’ is dependent on some factors such as the behavior of such society, so also, the question of gender relation and fertility level is also dependent on society.
REFERENCE
Al-Qudsi, S. S. : Labor Participation of Arab Women: Estimates of the Fertility To Labor Supply Link. Applied Economics, 30(7): 931-941 (1998). London, England..
An Examination of Factors Affecting Fertility Rate Differentials as Compared Among Women in Less and More Developed Countries by Ashraf Ragab El-Ghannam
ANNAN-YAO E. 1998a, Women Education and Population Growth in Africa. ESP 27, ADB, Imprimerie. Souvenir, Abidjan.
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Entarta English Dictionary
Song of a goat by J. P. Clark
The sociological construction of gender and sexuality Chris Brickell
The sociology of Gender by ROSALIND A. SYDIE
The University of Alberta, Canada
UNESCO, 2000a Education for All : Status and Trends 2000, EFA Forum Secretariat, Paris
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What is Gender? Sociological approaches by Mary Holmes
World Bank: World Bank Report, Published by World Bank, The Johns Hopkins University PresS, Baltimore and London (2003)