Development Context, Regional Differences among Young Women, and Fertility: The Ecuadorean Amazon

Abstract

This study examines macro-micro linkages between development context and fertility. We extend two conceptual approaches on the social context of fertility to an alternative development setting, the extractive periphery, represented by Ecuador's Amazon, Focus is on how relationships between young women's social structural positions and fertility are modified by attributes of the regions development. Data are from a full population of young Ecuadorean women. The fertility-reducing effects of women's education, student status, labor force participation, and paid employment are found to decline in the Amazon as a consequence of its family-based economy, class structure, and high-fertility demographic regime. Amazonian development entails costs to women, evidenced in higher fertility and in that women in similar social positions experience less buffer against this trend in the Amazon.