Traditionally in Africa, men are regarded as the main income providers for the family. The patriarchal nature of the African society also accrues powers and authority to men with regards to household decision-making. However, the impact of recent economic recession in most African countries and continued dispersal of gender egalitarianism have weakened the dominance of men as breadwinners for their families. This has increased women’s participation in productive and paid activities. Vitali & Arpino (2016) explained that the rise in female-breadwinning role was as a result of the growing phenomenon of gender equality, in addition to economic and institutional challenges which have affected men’s employment and earnings. Women are increasingly engaged in paid work as a result of economic necessity. The increase in women participation in the labour force has also reshaped cultural beliefs, reduced gender differences in parenting experiences and promoted understanding of family life between husband and wife. Men have started to see their wives as partners and contributors to the well-being of the family. Available literature also reveal that greater investment in women’s education alongside the economic recession which has led to significant job loss among men have placed women in better positions to contribute to the financial well being of the family (Chesley 2011, Van Bavel, 2012).
While, the inverse relationship between women’s labour force participation and fertility has been established in many studies around the world (Adeyemi, Odusina & Akintoye 2016; Arpino, Esping-Andersen, & Pessin, 2015, Tortarolo, 2014; Agüero, & Marks, 2011; Bloom, Canning, Fink & Finlay, 2009; Billari, & Ortega 2006), the dual role played by women as breadwinners and home makers has also been found to significantly contribute to lower fertility as women may decide either to delay births or prolong cohabitation without childbearing while young women will delay age at marriage or find alternatives to family building (Brinton and Lee, 2016). Studies in the United States among college students have revealed that easy access to contraceptives affects the timing of marriage, births and incidence of cohabitation. Women will be able to work for pay, invest in on-the-job training and pursue their professional career (Goldin and Katz 2002; Bailey 2006; Guldi 2008; Christensen 2011). The economic theory of women’s fertility and work envisages that the competing demands for women’s time to work outside the home or to bear and care for children reach equilibrium where the household obtains maximal gain. While human capital theory explained that health and labor force participation are positively correlated, studies have also shown that challenges in individual health will reduce labour force participation, lower productivity and add extra burden to the family income. On the other hand, low productivity as a result of poor health will reduce earning potentials (Zamo-Akono, 2009; Nanfosso & Zamo-Akono, 2010; Cai and Kalb, 2006; Waghorn and Lloyd, 2005).
In addition, studies have confirmed that higher fertility associated with lower participation in the labour force among women during their reproductive life time, while access to family planning and reduction in birth increase the female labour participation (Bloom et al, 2009, Shareen, 2012). An Indonesian study attests to the likelihood of women participation in the labour force increasing by 20% with the reduction of one birth over the period of 20 years. Women labour participation and increased level of education increase the value of their time, making it more expensive to bear children (Lam and Duryea, 1999).
Although, studies have examined the changes in the household income provider role (breadwinners’ families) with regards to economic recession and social change (Cherlin, 2016; Cory & Stirling, 2015; Bertrand, Kamenica & Pan, 2015; Cho & Newhouse, 2012; Chesley 2011; Cha & Thébaud, 2009), women’s participation in labour force and fertility (Busso & Fonseca, 2015, Bloom, Canning, Fink & Finlay, 2009), there are still limited studies on the changing gender roles and its association with fertility choices especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (subsequently SSA). It is thus imperative to answer these questions: how do changes economic dependency affect use of modern contraceptives and timing of next birth? Do changing economic dependency influence opportunity cost of childbearing among married women in SSA? How related are economic dependency, opportunity cost of childbearing and fertility in SSA? Providing answers to these questions will unravel the contextual factors that explain the impact of changing roles on the cost of bearing children in sub-Sahara Africa. The findings will serve as a template for policy makers on how to reduce the fertility level in Africa.
CHANGING ROLES AND FERTILITY IN SUB- SAHARAN AFRICA
In pre-colonial traditional African societies, the roles of men and women are complementary. Women had opportunity to participate in most activities, although this varies from one society to the other. It was during colonial period that the idea that women belong to the home for childbearing and food preparation was introduced through Western patriarchal structures. This led to the erosion of traditional social institutions and restricted women into disadvantaged vulnerable positions. In many contemporary societies, gender determines the roles played and the relative power wielded by men and women. It also establishes the opportunities and privileges held. It is this patriarchal ideology which exaggerates biological differences between men and women. This becomes even more obvious when one considers that the family remains the social and symbolic place in which sexual differences is believed to be primary and at the same time constructed. Maakama (2013) is of the opinion that patriarchy is a set of social relations that enables men to dominate women. The social relations are also determined by power attributes which influence how society describes what is masculine or feminine. Although ‘[p]ower is relational, it becomes apparent when it is exercised, power is not associated with a particular institution, but with practices, techniques, and procedures, employed at all levels and through many dimensions’ (Luna, Gemma & Dorothea 2017) The value which either men or women hold is tied to their traditional gender-assigned powers which vary from one society to another. For example, in most African rural societies, women are engaged primarily in farming, weaving, pottery, dyeing and trading, while still tied to the home, taking care of the children and playing a subservient role. The role of men which is clearly defined involves providing for the family, and because they occupy the position of head of the family, they make all major decisions including reproductive choices. This creates a division of labour along gender lines and normal family life has come to be defined in terms of a breadwinning husband and a domestic wife with ideal feminine attributes which include sexual innocence and motherhood with the expectation that the woman becomes a hard working household provider.
Some studies have revealed that culturally, women in south-western Nigeria are significantly empowered at the family level, even in responsibilities that are normatively prescribed for men (Ogunjuyigbe and Adeyemi 2005). This implies some degree of autonomy and power in a marital dyad. The powers are usually exercised in the prescribed periods in which women are expected to abstain from sexual relations with their husbands. Such periods include the period before marriage, during menstruation and postpartum period and also on becoming a grandmother. The existence of these prescribed periods reveals that traditionally women have sexual rights. Bogalech and Mengstu, (2007) also explained that in Ethiopia, traditionally, women have little autonomy on most individual and family or household issues, including the option to choose whether to get modern health services during illness, birth, reproductive health services and others.
However, the ability to take such decisions requires a sense of personal autonomy, which develops in tandem with the knowledge that women can provide for themselves and their children. Since the decisions regarding childbearing in most African settings are mostly made by men, it is generally assumed that African men are less inclined to limit their families than women because they operate in a socio-cultural and economic environment that make high fertility beneficial for both men and women. Ths however places the risks and costs primarily on women. Studies also confirm that one of the reasons for large family size in sub-Saharan Africa was because reproductive decision making was more firmly under the control of men (Caldwell and Caldwell 1990, Olusanya 1989). Despite this, changes in the level of education of women, urbanization, industrialization and economic recession have redefined the roles of women in the family and consequently affected family size. Lerch (2013) explained that sharp decline in fertility during the post-socialist transition in Europe and the former Soviet Union was initiated by the adverse material and social consequences of the economic crisis. This has however had a long lasting effect because the onset of childbearing was further postponed even after the economic and political situation stabilized. Studies on women empowerment and fertility in Africa have shown inverse relationship between women empowerment (regarding financial autonomy, household decision making especially reproductive health issues) and fertility (Hindin 2000; Shapiro 2008). Folarinmi (2013) also identified that women who have financial autonomy are more likely to make positive investments in their children thereby increasing their chances of survival during infancy and increasing their likelihood of ever attending school.