Husbands’ versus wives’ fertility goals and use of contraception: The influence of gender context in five Asian countries

Using data from Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, we explore how gender context influences (1) husband-wife concordance in the demand for children and (2) the impact of each spouse's fertility preferences on contraceptive use. We also explore whether the husband's pronatalism can explain the wife's unmet need for contraception. The results suggest that gender context has little net effect on couples' concordance, but influences the relative weight of husbands' and wives' preferences in determining contraceptive use. Analysis of women's unmet need for contraception suggests that the husbands' pronatalism contributes to wives' unmet need, but only to a relatively small degree, especially in settings where unmet need is high. This is the case because the proportion of couples with differing fertility goals is small in most communities.     

Men’s Migration and Women’s Fertility in Rural Mozambique

Labor migration profoundly affects households throughout rural Africa. This study looks at how men’s labor migration influences marital fertility in a context where such migration has been massive while its economic returns are increasingly uncertain. Using data from a survey of married women in southern Mozambique, we start with an event-history analysis of birth rates among women married to migrants and those married to nonmigrants. The model detects a lower birth rate among migrants’ wives, which tends to be partially compensated for by an increased birth rate upon cessation of migration. An analysis of women’s lifetime fertility shows that it decreases as the time spent in migration by their husbands accrues. When we compare reproductive intentions stated by respondents with migrant and nonmigrant husbands, we find that migrants’ wives are more likely to want another child regardless of the number of living children, but the difference is significant only for women who see migration as economically benefiting their households. Yet, such women are also significantly more likely to use modern contraception than other women. We interpret these results in light of the debate on enhancing versus disrupting effects of labor migration on families and households in contemporary developing settings.     

“Hedge Your Bets”: Technology’s Role in Young Gay Men’s Relationship Challenges

Technology is playing an increasingly pervasive role among young gay men in the process of meeting potential romantic or sexual partners. We investigated challenges posed by technology related to young gay men’s relationships. Focus groups (n = 9) of young gay men aged 18–24 (n = 43) were transcribed verbatim, and thematic analysis was used to identify two major themes regarding challenges to relationship development and maintenance. Subthemes include unrealistic expectations of relationships, inauthentic self-presentation online, sexual primacy over romance, increased opportunities for infidelity, and jealousy. The implications of this study for sexual education and sexual health promotion are discussed.     

Witnessing a body in decline: Men’s and women’s perceptions of an altered physical appearance

ABSTRACT

There has been a tendency within the literature to ignore how men and women who are very ill and at the end of life perceive and experience their visibly altered bodies. This article aims to provide new insights about this matter. A qualitative research approach was adopted. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 hospice patients, 20 family members, and 20 members of hospice staff. Findings reveal that because of masculine and feminine norms, physical appearance is more a matter of concern to women than to men who are close to death. This contradicts theories that suggest that patients experience a disinvestment on their sense of masculinity and femininity alongside the process of bodily deterioration and decay prior impending potential death.     

Is poverty multidimensional? A comparison of income and asset based measures in five Southern African countries.

This paper contests the major emphasis placed on the multidimensional nature of poverty measurement. Instead, it argues that poverty pictures created by different measures and at different units of analysis tend to converge. This argument is derived from a comparison of poverty pictures created using income and asset-based measures at the national and household level in five South African Development Community countries. Although multidimensional measures have value in illuminating subtle differences, the findings indicate a single dimension of poverty that runs throughout all the measures and levels of analysis. However, despite the single poverty picture provided by different measures, the abandonment of these different measures is not supported. Multidimensional measures provide insight into particular elements of poverty that is useful and relevant to poverty interventions.     

Racial-Ethnic Differences in U.S. Married Women’s and Men’s Housework

Married women continue to spend more time doing housework than men and economic resources influence women’s housework more strongly than men’s. To explain this, gender theorists point to how gender figures into identities, family interactions, and societal norms and opportunity structures. The extent of this configuration varies culturally and, in the United States, by race-ethnicity because of how race-ethnicity conditions access to resources and influences gender relations within marriages. Housework levels and gender differences may be lower in Black married couples compared to other couples because of Black women’s higher historical levels of employment and consequently long-standing need to balance work and family responsibilities. Race-ethnicity also likely conditions the symbolic meaning and thus association of economic resources and housework. We use pooled time diary data from the 2003 to 2007 American Time Use Study from 26,795 married women and men to investigate how and why race-ethnicity influences housework. Our results indicate Hispanic and Asian women do more cooking and cleaning compared with White and Black women and the inverse relationship between women’s earnings and housework is steeper for Hispanic women compared with other women. We find no evidence that married Black men devote more time to housework than White men, either core or occasional, unlike earlier studies.     

Constructions and Negotiations of Sexuality in Canadian Federal Men’s Prisons

ABSTRACT

Nuances lacing the organization of sexuality across cultures and contexts shape sexual behavior and identity. In this article, the culture and understandings of sexual identity and behavior in Canadian men’s federal prisons are examined to reveal how prisoners construct and interpret their own sexuality, as well as that of others, within the heteronormative prison space. Drawing from interviews with formerly incarcerated men, we explore how sexuality constitutes a product of dominant cultural discourses that differentiates between sexual behavior and identity. We frame how sexuality is constructed and regulated in prison within the theoretical context of shame and stigmatization, finding definitions of heterosexuality that do not preclude same-sex sexual activity.     

Paternity Establishment for Men’s Nonmarital Births

This paper uses the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth to examine paternity establishment among men’s nonmarital births. Using births as the unit of analysis, I find that paternity establishment for first births (n = 661) is linked to race/ethnicity and relationship status at birth, and these characteristics are associated differently with the timing and location of paternity establishment (in-hospital or at some later point). For higher-parity births (n = 429), paternity establishment for a particular birth is strongly related to prior paternity and fertility behaviors. Paternity is less likely to be established for a higher-parity birth if the father failed to establish paternity for at least one earlier birth, and third or higher-parity births are far more likely to have paternity established at a subsequent point than at the hospital.     

Power and negotiation: Young women’s choices about sex and contraception

This paper explores issues of power and negotiation for two decisions affecting young women’s sexual lives: die decision to have sexual intercourse and the decision to contracept. Using data from two recent Australian surveys the paper explores the complexity of these decisions and the way in which gender relations between young people can influence dieir reproductive outcomes; young women experience a high rate of sexual coercion and violence and current data collections do not allow analysis of their cause.     

Levels of urbanization in the world’s countries: testing consistency of estimates based on national definitions

Estimates of urbanization levels for all countries, as published in the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects, are not comparable across countries because they are based on national definitions of urbanization, which vary greatly across countries. We construct alternative estimates of urbanization that are comparable across countries, to use these estimates to point out definitional problems or outlying countries with interesting urban characteristics. The alternative estimates are constructed using variables that are associated with urbanization, as well as a categorical variable that summarizes the urban definition used in the country. We find that among the 181 countries included in the analysis, 21 % have a restrictive definition, and 31 % a generous definition of urbanization. In 2000, the difference between the alternative estimate and the UN estimate was more than 10 % for 67 countries. An examination of six countries with surprisingly low or high reported levels of urbanization, as compared the alternative estimates, highlights issues with the plausibility of the official estimate. We conclude that comparison of urbanization estimates across countries should be treated with care, given the wide range of definitions used. To produce more informative estimates of urbanization, several countries would need to clarify or rethink their definition of urban.     

Women’s experiences of care and support following perinatal death in high burden countries: A metasynthesis

ProblemThe experiences of women in low and middle-income countries following perinatal death remains difficult and challenging, thereby increasing their susceptibility to negative psychological impact particularly with insufficient bereavement care and support.BackgroundPerinatal death invariably brings intense grief which significantly impacts women, and requires adequate bereavement care to limit negative outcomes in the short and long-term.AimTo develop deeper understanding of women’s experience of care and support following perinatal death in high burden settings.MethodsSix electronic databases were searched with relevant terms established using the SPIDER tool, supplemented by hand search of reference lists. Studies were independently screened for inclusion by all authors. Meta-ethnography (Noblit and Hare,1988) was used to synthesise existing qualitative studies.FindingsEight studies conducted in Sub-Saharan African and South Asian countries namely South Africa, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, India and Malawi were included, and three main themes were identified; mothers’ reaction to their baby’s death, care and support after perinatal death, and coping strategies in the absence of care and support. Perinatal death was not appropriately acknowledged therefore care and support was inadequate and, in some cases, non-existent. Consequently, mothers resorted to adopting coping strategies as they were unable to express their grief.DiscussionThere is insufficient care and support for women following perinatal death in high burden settings.ConclusionsFurther research is required into the care and support being given by healthcare professionals and families in high burden settings, thereby ultimately aiding the development of guidance on perinatal bereavement care.     

Women’s autonomy and child survival: A comparison of muslims and non-muslims in four Asian countries

In this article, I evaluate the hypothesis that higher infant and child mortality among Muslim populations is related to the lower autonomy of Muslim women using data from 15 pairs of Muslim and non-Muslim communities in India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Women's autonomy in various spheres is not consistently lower in Muslim than in non-Muslim settings. Both across and within communities, the association between women's autonomy and mortality is weak, and measures of autonomy or socioeconomic status are generally of limited import for understanding the Muslim disadvantage in children's survival.     

Older Single Gay Men’s Body Talk: Resisting and Rigidifying the Aging Discourse in the Gay Community

Previous research saw older gay men as subject to structural marginalization of ageism but yet possessing agency to interpret aging in diverse ways. I move beyond this duality, drawing on the theory of defensive othering to understand how older gay men live with the aging discourse in the gay community. Informed by grounded theory, I analyzed interviews with 25 self-identified single gay men aged 50 or above in England inductively. It emerged that many older gay men found it difficult to escape the discourse that marginalizes the aging body. Even when they argued they were the exception and “looked good,” they were discursively producing a two-tier system: they themselves as the “good older gay men,” as opposed to the other “bad older gay men,” who “had given up.” Such a defensive othering tactic seemingly allowed them to resist age norms from applying to them personally, but unintentionally reinforced an ageist discourse.     

“I’m in control: I’m not stumbling in the dark anymore”: Midlife women’s experiences of successfully negotiating safer sex with new partners

The rates of STIs in women over 45 years have been steadily increasing in Australia and other Western countries. Traditionally sexual health and STI prevention and research has positioned young people as the priority population; to date, insufficient attention has been paid to the sexual health of women over 45 years. Using a strengths-based approach, the objective of this study was to explore the factors and mechanisms that enable Australian women aged 45 to 64 years to successfully negotiate safer sex practices in new relationships. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was employed for an in-depth exploratory study of a sample of eight women. Three broad themes emerged: being informed, being prepared, and being empowered. These findings provide a valuable insight into how we can initiate change and support safer sex practices for this target group.     

It’s Not Me,It’s You: Perceptions of Partner Body Image Preferences Associated With Eating Disorder Symptoms in Gay and Heterosexual Men

This study explored perceptions of partner body image preferences and symptoms of disordered eating in gay and heterosexual men. Participants were male college students (n = 201; M age = 20.46), and over one third identified as gay. We compared discrepancies between participants’ current and ideal body type and participants’ current body type and the body type they believed they should have to attract a dating partner. For gay men, the discrepancy between their current body and the body they believed they should have to attract a dating partner was significantly greater than the discrepancy between their current and ideal body types. In gay and heterosexual men, the discrepancy between current body and the body they believed they should have to attract a dating partner predicted eating, shape, and weight concern. Results suggest that perceptions of partner body image preferences may contribute to eating disorder pathology in men.     

Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in mortality in developing countries: The case of child Survival in São Paulo,Brazil*

I examined trends in socioeconomic inequalities in under-five mortality for the state of São Paulo, Brazil, over a 21-year period from 1970 to 1991, during which much of the mortality transition unfolded. During this time, there was a decline in inequality in under-five mortality by household wealth but a substantial increase by mother’s education. Improvements in infrastructure and economic development were associated with lower levels of socioeconomic inequality in under-five mortality. Mother’s education emerged as the key factor underlying socioeconomic inequalities in under-five mortality even as levels of education for women increased and inequality in schooling fell.     

Energy, population and the environment: exploring Canada’s record on CO2 emissions and energy use relative to other OECD countries

Across the OECD, Canada??s record on CO₂ emissions is particularly poor, with overall emissions up 32% over the 1990?C2007 period. The current paper seeks to better understand this situation by making systematic comparisons of Canada with other OECD countries. For Canada overall, the rapid increase in emissions over the 1990?C2007 period can be explained by several factors, including major population growth, increased affluence (although to a lesser extent than elsewhere in the OECD), a continued dependence on fossil fuels, while continuing to increase its overall demand for energy. While the energy intensity of Canada??s economy has declined somewhat over recent years, it actually lagged behind most OECD countries on this front and remains one of the most energy intense economies in the world (2nd highest in the OECD on our indicator of energy intensity). While there are many factors responsible for this, Canada??s particularly energy-intensive industrial structure is certainly relevant, as is the importance of its primary sector relative to most developed nations.     

Household air pollution as a silent killer: women’s status and solid fuel use in developing nations

Household air pollution is a leading cause of death globally, as 4.3 million people die prematurely each year from illness attributable to use of solid fuels (WHO 2016a). Many studies contend that gender inequalities are likely to greatly shape the global distribution of solid fuel use and its negative health consequences. We conduct an analysis of 91 developing nations using structural equation models on the prevalence of female indoor air pollution deaths among women and the ratio of female to male indoor air pollution deaths. The results illustrate that women’s status is a robust predictor of solid fuel use, and that improved women’s status also correlates directly with lower female to male indoor air pollution deaths ratios and indirectly with reduced female death prevalence through lower solid fuel dependence. Women’s status additionally mediates the effects of some other notable predictors, such as economic development. Overall, the results bring attention to a “silent killer” in less-developed nations and illustrate that greater female empowerment is an important avenue in addressing this global pandemic.     

The links between women’s employment and children at home: Variations in low- and middle-income countries by world region

As fertility declines in low- and middle-income countries, the time women devote to childbearing and rearing may also be reduced. This shift has been described as one of the positive consequences of the demographic transition, as it opens opportunities for women to pursue educational and employment opportunities that were previously constrained by the demands of bearing and raising children. We estimate the numbers of children residing at home (with their mother) for women in 58 countries in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. We then examine the association between women’s employment and having children at home. Finally, we assess trends over recent decades in the relationship between employment and childbearing, and differences in this relationship by mother’s occupation. We find a negative association between women’s employment and having children at home; this association varies substantially by world region, age of child, and mother’s occupation.