These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Bearing the burden: women's status linked to stopping overpopulation.
    Author: Stutsman R.
    Journal: ZPG Report; 1992 Feb; 24(1):1, 4. PubMed ID: 12284782.
    Abstract:
    Improving the status of women is a key element for saving women's lives, increasing contraceptive prevalence, and curbing population growth. Currently, about 1/2 of all the women in the world are of reproductive age, most of whom live in developing countries, where they lack access to adequate health care, schooling, or nutrition. A young girl in the Third World is likely to bear numerous household responsibilities. As a result, she is unlikely to receive formal schooling. It is also probable that she will be married by age 18. 50% of African women and 40% of Asian women are married by this age. As a wife, her primary responsibility will be to have as many children as her husband desires. In addition to child care, women in developing countries often bear the burden of growing food. At least 50% of the world's food is grown by women. The increasing population pressure makes it more difficult for women to fulfill the responsibility of supporting their families. Poor and desperate, these women lack control over their lives, and have little time to worry about the long-term consequences of their actions upon the planet. Enhancing women's status, therefore, is an essential element of population policy. And family planning is one way to improve women's sense of autonomy. Not only does it contribute to overpopulation, unintended pregnancy also has serious consequences for women's health. Complications of pregnancy, childbirth, and unsafe abortion are the leading killers of women of reproductive age in the Third World. But in order to make family planning successful, familial and cultural barriers must be overcome. There are stories of success in many Third World countries, where family planning has succeeded in dramatically reducing fertility.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]