Alternative Measures of Women’s Empowerment and Methods of Contraception: A Study of Selected African Countries

Abstract

Women’s empowerment and its impact on adoption of contraception and on fertility has been a subject of growing interest in academia over the last decades, and channels for boosting empowerment have been suggested and evaluated. It is not merely the choice to use or not to use contraception that will determine the fertility outcome of an individual or a couple. This paper addresses the question to what extent the individual woman’s empowerment is related to her use of effective contraceptive methods in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa using DHS data. Some alternative ways of measuring women’s empowerment are explored. The findings reinforce the opinion that the association between empowerment and fertility to a large extent is context-specific and highlight the necessity of conducting community-level studies for further insights.