Marriage Type and Relative Spousal Power in Ghana: Changing Effects of Monogamy During Early Fertility Decline

Abstract

Women in monogamous unions enjoyed more reproductive control than their polygynous counterparts prior to the onset of Ghana’s fertility transition. However, as the transition progressed, men’s relative influence grew, and it grew more in monogamous marriages than in polgynous ones. As men select into monogamy on the basis of lower (but not low) fertility desires, the pressure on their wives to fulfill those desires seems greater. In contrast, junior wives of polygynously married men may be under pressure to cease childbearing; even relatively high fertility goals have dropped enough that they seldom require expending the full reproductive potential of more than one wife. Differences by lineage type are modest, but the influence of matrilineal women decreased during early fertility transition. Even though lower fertility is commonly associated with reproductive autonomy, the subgroups of Ghanaian women having more influence in reproductive decision-making under traditional fertility regimes—the monogamous and also the matrilineal—lost relative power during early fertility transition.