Gendered interests and poor spousal contraceptive communication in Islamic northern Nigeria
Open Access
- 1 October 2010
- journal article
- Published by BMJ in BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health
- Vol. 36 (4), 219-224
- https://doi.org/10.1783/147118910793048494
Abstract
Relying on focus group discussions and in-depth individual interviews with men and women in Jigawa and Kano states in northern Nigeria, we investigated barriers to spousal contraceptive communication. While attitudes toward spousal contraceptive communication were generally positive, there was very little evidence that respondents engaged in it. Poor spousal contraceptive communication in northern Nigeria is, in many ways, driven by the ample incentives that husbands and wives have to keep having children. For wives, having many children stabilises their marriage. It prevents husbands from marrying additional wives and sustains their attention and investments even if they ultimately do. For husbands, having many children helps them to keep their wives from objecting to their taking other wives and to mollify them by showing their continued commitment to that relationship should they take other wives. Our findings clearly challenge conventional population, family planning and reproductive health programmes that view high fertility as disempowering for women, and contraceptive use as capable of redressing gender inequality. New norms of gender relations are key to promoting contraceptive uptake and smaller families in northern Nigeria.Keywords
This publication has 12 references indexed in Scilit:
- Men, Women, and Abortion in Central Kenya: A Study of Lay NarrativesMedical Anthropology, 2009
- Support Groups, Marriage, and the Management of Ambiguity among HIV-Positive Women in Northern NigeriaAnthropological Quarterly, 2009
- Overlaps and Disconnects in Reproductive Health Care: Global Policies, National Programs, and the Micropolitics of Reproduction in Northern SenegalMedical Anthropology, 2007
- Male Knowledge, Attitudes, and Family Planning Practices in Northern Nigeria / Connaissance, attitude et pratiques de la planification familiale chez les hommes au Nigéria du nordAfrican Journal of Reproductive Health, 2006
- Legacies of Biafra: Marriage, ‘Home People’ and Reproduction Among the Igbo of NigeriaAfrica, 2005
- OUT OF SYNC: A GENERATION OF FIRST-TIME MOTHERS OVER 30Health Care for Women International, 2003
- A method of analysing interview transcripts in qualitative researchNurse Education Today, 1991
- The Politics of ReproductionAnnual Review of Anthropology, 1991
- women's secrets: bases for reproductive and social autonomy in a Mexican communityAmerican Ethnologist, 1988
- The Politics of Reproduction in a Mexican VillageSigns: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 1986