Fertility and indices of women's status: a study of relationships in Nigeria.

Using data derived from the Nigerian segment of the World Fertility Survey of 1981/82, an examination of the relationships between fertility and selected indices of women's status was undertaken. Women whose 1st marriages have not been dissolved either by the death of their spouses or by divorce were selected for the analysis. Finding indicate among others that: 1) fertility is lowest among nonworking women and highest among women who either had prenuptial and postnuptial working experience or work for financial remuneration in nonfamilial enterprises; 2) female education is significantly inversely related to fertility; 3) mothers in monogamous unions have lower fertility than their counterparts in polygynous unions; and 4) the age difference between spouses is negatively correlated with fertility. Despite the role- incompatibility hypothesis with its implicit explanation for lower fertility among working women, the Nigerian findings may be a result of state-of-the-economy conditioned adequacy of family income (husband's income in a household with nonworking spouse) to meet family needs on the probability of having additional births. Working mothers whose income can supplement their husbands to meet family needs may not be economically pressured to stop childbearing. The economy-dependent nature of the relationships between fertility and female employment appears reflected in this analysis of cross-sectional data. An increase in female education could engender reduced fertility and the impact appears to become stronger as education increases. The impact of the use of contraception is not clear as there appears to be no significant difference in fertility along lines of variations in contraceptive usage. Even though increased education is expected to increase the husbands' appreciation of the rationale behind small family ideals and as such be negatively correlated with fertility, the income effect to their education has tended to prevail.