Gender Power Relations in Reproductive Decision-Making: The Case of Migrant Weavers of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Reproductive decision-making is strongly affected by gender power relations. In many developing countries most of reproductive decisions are made by men although it is, as well, the concern of women. Hence, this study was undertaken with the objective of assessing gender power relations in reproductive decision-making. Three hundred seventeen married couples were randomly selected and data collected from them through structured questionnaire. Simple descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression was used to analyze the data.Accordingly, about 45% and 35% of the respondents reported that their husbands dominate the contraceptive use and maternal health service utilization decision-making, respectively. On the other hand, about 33% and 36% of respondents made the contraceptive use and maternal health service utilization decisions jointly with their husbands, respectively. From the multinomial logistic regression analysis results older women, literates, those having fewer children and media access made the contraceptive use decisions by their own or jointly with their husbands. Literates and working women made the maternal health service utilization decisions by their own or jointly. Women who are not victim of physical harassment or verbal abuse made the maternal health service utilization decisions jointly. Besides, working women and those having media access made the contraceptive use and maternal health service utilization decisions by their own, respectively. Empowering women through education and economic activities are recommended to realize egalitarian or women-centered reproductive decision-making.