Maternal education and child health: A feminist dilemma

Feminist Studies

Volumn 26, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 425-446

  Desai, Sonalde ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0039621422     PISSN: 00463663     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3178543     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. Although demographers, on the whole, have been better about incorporating class-based inequalities than gender-based inequalities in their work, this work does not stand up to close scrutiny. However, the purpose of this article is to focus on the difficulties of incorporating gender in demographic research. Examination of other forms of inequality and intersection between gender and class inequality is outside the scope of the current work.
2. Daisy Dwyer and Judith Bruce, eds., Homes Divided (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988).
3. Demography is the flagship journal of the Population Association of America and the papers published in Demography tend to be highly technical in nature following a positivistic scientific methodology as documented by its one-time editor. See Avery M. Guest, "Gatekeeping among the Demographers," in Editors as Gatekeepers, ed. Rita J. Simon and James J. Faye (Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 1994).
4. Sonalde Desai and Soumya Alva, "Maternal Education and Child Health: Is There a Strong Causal Relationship?" Demography 35, no. 1 (1998): 71-81.
5. John Caldwell, "How Is Greater Maternal Education Translated into Lower Child Mortality?" Health Transition Review 4, no. 2 (1994): 224-29.
6. Comments on manuscript 95-077(r1)b, transmitted by Robert Mare, editor Demography, in a letter dated 25 April 1997.
7. John Hobcraft, "Women's Education, Child Welfare, and Child Survival: A Review of the Evidence," Health Transition Review 3, no. 2 (1993): 159-79; John Cleland, George Bicego, and Greg Fegan, "Socioeconomic Inequalities in Childhood Mortality: The 1970s Compared with the 1980s," in Proceedings of the Demographic and Health Surveys World Conference, vol. 1 (Columbia, Md: IRD/Macro International, 1991); Carmen Elisa Florez and Dennis Hogan, "Women's Status and Infant Mortality in Rural Colombia," Social Biology 37, nos. 3-4 (1990): 188-203.
8. John Hobcraft, "Women's Education, Child Welfare, and Child Survival: A Review of the Evidence," Health Transition Review 3, no. 2 (1993): 159-79; John Cleland, George Bicego, and Greg Fegan, "Socioeconomic Inequalities in Childhood Mortality: The 1970s Compared with the 1980s," in Proceedings of the Demographic and Health Surveys World Conference, vol. 1 (Columbia, Md: IRD/Macro International, 1991); Carmen Elisa Florez and Dennis Hogan, "Women's Status and Infant Mortality in Rural Colombia," Social Biology 37, nos. 3-4 (1990): 188-203.
9. John Hobcraft, "Women's Education, Child Welfare, and Child Survival: A Review of the Evidence," Health Transition Review 3, no. 2 (1993): 159-79; John Cleland, George Bicego, and Greg Fegan, "Socioeconomic Inequalities in Childhood Mortality: The 1970s Compared with the 1980s," in Proceedings of the Demographic and Health Surveys World Conference, vol. 1 (Columbia, Md: IRD/Macro International, 1991); Carmen Elisa Florez and Dennis Hogan, "Women's Status and Infant Mortality in Rural Colombia," Social Biology 37, nos. 3-4 (1990): 188-203.
10. Examples of articles simply assuming the linkage between maternal education and child health are too numerous to list. But some noteworthy studies include: Karen O. Mason, Gender and Demographic Change: What Do We Know? (Liège, Belgium: International Union for the Scientific Study of the Population, 1995); John Hobcraft, The Health Rationale for Family Planning: Timing of Births and Child Survival (New York: United Nations Population Division, ST/ESA/SER.A/141, 1994).
11. Examples of articles simply assuming the linkage between maternal education and child health are too numerous to list. But some noteworthy studies include: Karen O. Mason, Gender and Demographic Change: What Do We Know? (Liège, Belgium: International Union for the Scientific Study of the Population, 1995); John Hobcraft, The Health Rationale for Family Planning: Timing of Births and Child Survival (New York: United Nations Population Division, ST/ESA/SER.A/141, 1994).
12. Harriet Presser, "Demography, Feminism, and Science-Policy Nexus," Population and Development Review 23, no. 2 (1997): 295-332.
13. John Caldwell, "Education as a Factor in Mortality Decline: An Examination of Nigerian Data," Population Studies 33, no. 3 (1979): 395-413.
14. For a description of the political processes surrounding the development of the field of feminist demography, see Presser, "Demography, Feminism, and Science-Policy Nexus."
15. Karen O. Mason, The Status of Women: A Review of Its Relationships to Fertility and Mortality (New York: Rockefeller Foundation, 1984).
16. W.H. Mosley and L.C. Chen, "An Analytic Framework for the Study of Child Survival in Developing Countries," Population and Development Review 10 suppl. (1994): 25-45.
17. Scott Halstead, Julia Walsh, and Kenneth Warren, Good Health at Low Cost (New York: Rockefeller Foundation, 1985).
18. J. C. Caldwell et al., What Have We Learnt About Health Transition? The Cultural, Social and Behavioural Determinants of Health (Canberra: Australian National University Printing Service, 1990).
19. Hobcraft, "Women's Education, Child Welfare, and Child Survival: A Review of the Evidence," 158-75.
20. Hobcraft, The Health Rationale for Family Planning: Timing of Births and Child Survival. The primary author of this United Nations publication, John Hobcraft is a thoughtful and respected demographer and as can be seen from the passage cited, has no illusions about the strength of the empirical results he presents. It seems quite likely that the United Nations exercised considerable editorial control over the material in this report.
21. World Bank, World Development Report, 1993 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 42. Ironically, this report cites John Hobcraft, "Women's Education, Child Welfare, and Child Survival," 1993, to provide technical support for this argument without acknowledging Hobcraft's cautionary note that it is difficult to draw conclusions regarding the causal role of maternal education. This report also fails to acknowledge that the improvement in mortality associated with one to three years of maternal education was statistically significant only in five of the twenty-five countries he studied.
22. World Bank, World Development Report, 1993 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 42. Ironically, this report cites John Hobcraft, "Women's Education, Child Welfare, and Child Survival," 1993, to provide technical support for this argument without acknowledging Hobcraft's cautionary note that it is difficult to draw conclusions regarding the causal role of maternal education. This report also fails to acknowledge that the improvement in mortality associated with one to three years of maternal education was statistically significant only in five of the twenty-five countries he studied.
23. World Bank, World Development Report, 1992: Development and Environment (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).
24. B.K. Sircar et al., "An Operational Study on Implementation of Oral Rehydration Therapy in a Rural Community in West Bengal, India," Indian Journal of Medical Research 93 (December 1991): 297-302.
25. J. Ties Boerma, A. Elisabeth Sommerfelt, and Shea O. Rutstein, Childhood Morbidity and Treatment Patterns (Columbia, Md: Institute for Resource Development/Macro International, 1991).
26. Carl Kendell, Dennis Foote, and Reynaldo Martorell, "Ethnomedicine and Oral Rehydration Therapy: A Case Study of Ethnomedical Investigation and Program Planning," Social Science and Medicine 19, no. 3 (1984): 253-60. A.T. Sabchareon et al., "Maternal Practices and Risk Factors for Dehydration from Diarrhoea in Young Children: A Case-Control Study in Central Thailand Slums," Journal of Diarrhoeal Diseases Research 10 (December 1992): 221-26.
27. Carl Kendell, Dennis Foote, and Reynaldo Martorell, "Ethnomedicine and Oral Rehydration Therapy: A Case Study of Ethnomedical Investigation and Program Planning," Social Science and Medicine 19, no. 3 (1984): 253-60. A.T. Sabchareon et al., "Maternal Practices and Risk Factors for Dehydration from Diarrhoea in Young Children: A Case-Control Study in Central Thailand Slums," Journal of Diarrhoeal Diseases Research 10 (December 1992): 221-26.
28. M.M. Ibrahim et al., "Diarrhoea among Children in Rural Somalia: Maternal Perceptions, Management, and Mortality," Annals of Tropical Pediatrics 14, no. 3 (1994): 215-22.
29. Boerma, Sommerfelt, and Rutstein.
30. Pamela Bolton et al., "Health Technologies and Women of the Third World," in The Women and International Development Annual, vol. 1, ed. Rita S. Galin, Marilyn Aronoff, and Anne Ferguson (Boulder: Westview Press, 1989).
31. Sonalde Desai, "Women's Burdens: Easing the Structural Constraints," in Population Policies Reconsidered: Health, Empowerment, and Rights, ed. Gita Sen, Adrienne Germaine, and Lincoln C. Chen (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994).
32. P. Sandiford et al., "Does Intelligence Account for the Link between Maternal Literacy and Child Survival?" Social Science and Medicine 45, no. 8 (1997): 1231-39.
33. Deborah Maine et al., "Risk, Reproduction, and Rights: The Uses of Reproductive Health Data," in Population and Development: Old Debates, New Conclusions, ed. Robert Cassen (Washington, D.C.: Overseas Development Council, 1994).
34. L.C. Chen et al., "Maternal Mortality in Rural Bangladesh," Studies in Family Planning 5, no. 9 (1974): 334-41.
35. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Vital Statistics of the United States, 1992, vol. 2, Mortality (Washington, D.C.: National Center for Health Statistics, 1992).
36. Zillah Eisenstein, "The Sexual Politics of the New Right: Understanding the Crisis of Liberalism," in Feminism and Philosophy: Essential Readings in Theory, Reinterpretation, and Application, ed. Nancy Tuana and Rosemarie Tong (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995).
37. For some interesting discussion in this area, see messages posted on the listserve FEMECON-L from Bucknell University.
38. Jennie Dey, "Development Planning in Gambia: The Gap between Planners' and Farmers' Perceptions," World Development 10 (May 1982): 377-96; Diane Elson, Male Bias in the Development Process (Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1991).
39. Jennie Dey, "Development Planning in Gambia: The Gap between Planners' and Farmers' Perceptions," World Development 10 (May 1982): 377-96; Diane Elson, Male Bias in the Development Process (Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1991).
40. Presser, "Demography, Feminism, and Science-Policy Nexus"; Mason, "Gender and Demographic Change: What Do We Know?"
41. Presser, "Demography, Feminism, and Science-Policy Nexus"; Mason, "Gender and Demographic Change: What Do We Know?"
42. Naila Kabeer, "And No-One Could Complain at That: Claims and Silences in Social-Cost Benefit Analysis," in Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought, ed. Naila Kabeer (London: Verso, 1996).
43. John Cleland, "ICPD and Feminization of Population and Development Issues," Health Transition Review 6, no. 1 (1996): 107-9.
44. In demographic jargon this is the distinction between dependent and independent variables.
45. Harriet Presser, "Can We Make Time for Children? The Economy, Work Schedules, and Child Care," Demography 26, no. 4 (1989): 523-44.
46. D.M. Blau and P.K. Robins, "Child Care Demand and Labor Supply of Young Mothers Over Time," Demography 28, no. 3 (1991): 333-51; Jacob Klerman and Arleen Leibowitz, "Child Care and Women's Return to Work after Childbirth," American Economic Review 80, no. 2 (1991): 284-88.
47. D.M. Blau and P.K. Robins, "Child Care Demand and Labor Supply of Young Mothers Over Time," Demography 28, no. 3 (1991): 333-51; Jacob Klerman and Arleen Leibowitz, "Child Care and Women's Return to Work after Childbirth," American Economic Review 80, no. 2 (1991): 284-88.
48. Susan Watkins, "If All We Knew about Women Was What We Read in Demography, What Would We Know?" Demography 30, no. 4 (1993): 551-578; Susan Greenhalgh, "The Social Construction of Population Science: An Intellectual, Institutional, and Political History of Twentieth-Century Demography," Comparative Studies in Society and History 38, no. 1 (1996): 26-66.
49. Susan Watkins, "If All We Knew about Women Was What We Read in Demography, What Would We Know?" Demography 30, no. 4 (1993): 551-578; Susan Greenhalgh, "The Social Construction of Population Science: An Intellectual, Institutional, and Political History of Twentieth-Century Demography," Comparative Studies in Society and History 38, no. 1 (1996): 26-66.
50. For an interesting interchange with respect to social inequality, see the exchange between Karen Mason and Andrew Cherlin in the Newsletter of the Sociology of Population Section, American Sociological Association 20, no. 1 (1996): 1-3.
51. Greenhalgh, "Social Construction of Population Science."
52. Dennis Hodgson, "Orthodoxy and Revisionism in American Demography," Population and Development Review 14, no. 4 (1988): 451-79.
53. Gayle Johnson and Ronald Lee, eds., Population Growth and Economic Development: Policy Questions (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences Press, 1986).
54. Ruth Dixon-Mueller, Population Policy and Women's Rights: Transforming Reproductive Choice (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1993); Susan Greenhalgh, "Controlling Births and Bodies in Village China," American Ethnologist 21, no. 1 (1994): 3-30; Faye Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp, eds., Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).
55. Ruth Dixon-Mueller, Population Policy and Women's Rights: Transforming Reproductive Choice (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1993); Susan Greenhalgh, "Controlling Births and Bodies in Village China," American Ethnologist 21, no. 1 (1994): 3-30; Faye Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp, eds., Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).
56. Ruth Dixon-Mueller, Population Policy and Women's Rights: Transforming Reproductive Choice (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1993); Susan Greenhalgh, "Controlling Births and Bodies in Village China," American Ethnologist 21, no. 1 (1994): 3-30; Faye Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp, eds., Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).
57. Nancy Reilly, "Is Feminist Demography an Oxymoron?" (Paper presented at the 1993 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, Westport, Conn., 1993).