Female Household Members Research Articles

Effect of Maternal Mortality on Survival of Under-Five Children

With regards to children who are born shortly before their mother's death (index), the cumulative proportion of survival up to 60 months of age was significantly lower (0.39 vs. 0.81) than those born just before the last child (penultimate) of the same mother. Such a difference is mainly due to high mortality in the first six months of age. Over the period between 1974 and 2005, survival improved among the penultimate but not the index children. For index children, the cumulative proportion of survival up to 60 months of age was significantly higher (0.79 vs. 0.51) if adopted by other households by the age of 15 days compared to those who stayed in their own households. Again for index children, the cumulative proportion of survival up to 60 months of age was significantly higher (0.82 vs. 0.70) for those who stayed in their own households where a grandmother was present compared to the presence of other female household members.

Alternative Definitions of Headship and the ‘Feminisation’ of Income Poverty in Post-Apartheid South Africa

In measuring gender differences in the risk of income poverty, many studies use female headship as a proxy for gender. However, a number of well-documented concerns with the use of self-reported headship as an analytical category have suggested that headship is often a relatively blunt unit of analysis. Against the backdrop of a large and growing difference in income poverty rates between self-reported female- and male-headed households in post-apartheid South Africa, this study considers several alternative definitions of headship that have been proposed in the development literature. The findings suggest that there is an association between self-reported female headship and a female household member being identified as the main breadwinner. However, the conventional definition of headship is likely to underestimate the growing risk of income poverty in female-headed households (relative to male-headed households) compared with several alternative definitions. The findings also suggest that alternative definitions of female headship may be more appropriate given the narrow way in which the household is defined in most national surveys. The article concludes with a discussion of the methodological and policy implications for alternative headship based studies of poverty.

Animal Husbandry Practices in Rural Bangladesh: Potential Risk Factors for Antimicrobial Drug Resistance and Emerging Diseases

Antimicrobial drug administration to household livestock may put humans and animals at risk for acquisition of antimicrobial drug-resistant pathogens. To describe animal husbandry practices, including animal healthcare-seeking and antimicrobial drug use in rural Bangladesh, we conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with key informants, including female household members (n = 79), village doctors (n = 10), and pharmaceutical representatives, veterinarians, and government officials (n = 27), and performed observations at animal health clinics (n = 3). Prevalent animal husbandry practices that may put persons at risk for acquisition of pathogens included shared housing and water for animals and humans, antimicrobial drug use for humans and animals, and crowding. Household members reported seeking human and animal healthcare from unlicensed village doctors rather than formal-sector healthcare providers and cited cost and convenience as reasons. Five times more per household was spent on animal than on human healthcare. Strengthening animal and human disease surveillance systems should be continued. Interventions are recommended to provide vulnerable populations with a means of protecting their livelihood and health.

Economic Crises and the Added Worker Effect in the Turkish Labor Market

Turkish economic growth has been characterized by periodic crises since financial liberalization reforms were enacted in the early 1990s. Given the phenomenally low female labor force participation rate in Turkey (one of the lowest in the world) and the limited scope of the country’s unemployment insurance scheme, there appears to be ample room for a female added worker effect as a household strategy against unemployment shocks under economic crises. Using micro data from household labor force surveys for the 2004-10 period, we examine the extent to which an unemployment shock to the primary male earner instigates female members of the household to move from nonparticipant status to labor market participation. This paper differs from the earlier few studies on the added worker effect in Turkey in a number of aspects. First, rather than simply basing the analysis on a static association between women’s observed participation status and men’s observed unemployment status in the survey period, we explore whether there is a dynamic relationship between transitions of women and men across labor market states. To do this, we make use of a question introduced to the Household Labor Force Survey in 2004 regarding the survey respondent’s labor market status in the previous year. This allows us to explore transitions by female members of households from nonparticipant status in the previous year to participant status in the current year, in response to male members making a transition from employed in the previous period to unemployed in the current period. We explore whether and to what extent the primary male earner’s move from employed to unemployed status determines the probability of married or single female full-time homemakers entering the labor market. We estimate the marginal effect of the unemployment shock on labor market transition probability for the overall sample as well as for different groups of women, and hence demonstrate that the effect varies widely depending on the particular characteristics of the woman — for example, her education level, age, urban/rural residence, and marital and parental status. We find that at the micro level an unemployment shock to the household increases the probability of a female homemaker entering the labor market by 6-8 percent. The marginal effects vary substantially across different groups of women by age, rural or urban residence, and education. For instance, a household unemployment shock increases by up to 34 percent the probability that a university graduate homemaker in the 20-45 age group will enter the labor market; for a high school graduate the probability drops to 17 percent, while for her counterpart with a secondary education the marginal effect is only 7 percent.

Local Utilization of NGO Presence in Changing Discources of Education in Rural Malawi

The paper examines the utilization of NGOs in changing conceptions over what makes a person educated and the advantages and liabilities that presenting one's-self as educated provides among Malawian small farmers. Through an ethnographic account it will be demonstrated that locally embedded actors incorporate the presence of a variety of NGOs in their education related negotiations and meaning making. It is argued that the presence of NGOs provides opportunities for many of the less enfranchised to challenge the notion (often presented by rural Malawian elites) that only those who go to schools are educated. Such claims assist people to claim resources that are either divided among the community or family. Nevertheless, not all poor are in a position to make such claims, for example, female members of poor male-headed households. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n7p47

Exploring the gap between hand washing knowledge and practices in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional comparative study

BackgroundHand washing is considered as one of the most effective hygiene promotion activities for public health in developing countries. This study compared hand washing knowledge and practices in BRAC’s water; sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programme areas over time.MethodsThis study is a cross-sectional comparative study between baseline (2006), midline (2009) and end-line (2011) surveys in 50 sub-districts from the first phase of the programme. Thirty thousand households from 50 sub-districts were selected in two steps: i) 30 villages were selected from each sub-district by cluster sampling, and ii) 20 households were chosen systematically from each village. The matched households were considered (26,404 in each survey) for analysis. Data were collected from households through face-to-face interview using a pre-tested questionnaire. Respondents were the adult female members of the same households, who had knowledge of day-to-day household activities related to water, sanitation and hygiene.ResultsA gap between perception and practice of proper hand washing practices with soap was identified in the study areas. Hand washing practice with soap before eating was much lower than after defecation. In baseline data, 8% reported to wash their hands with soap which significantly increased to 22% in end line. Hand washing knowledge and practices before cooking food, before serving food and while handling babies is considerably limited than other critical times. A multivariate analysis shows that socio-economic factors including education of household head and respondent, water availability and access to media have strong positive association with hand washing with soap.ConclusionGap between knowledge and practice still persists in hand washing practices. Long term and extensive initiatives can aware people about the effectiveness of hand washing.

Migration and gender differences in the home labour market: Evidence from Albania

This paper examines the role of migration in affecting the labour market opportunities of male and female household members left behind. We address this question by analyzing the impact of international migration flows from Albania, where migration is a massive and male-dominated phenomenon. We find that the labour supply of men and women responds differently to current and past migration. Controlling for the potential endogeneity of migration, estimates show that having a migrant abroad decreases female paid labour supply while increasing unpaid work. On the other hand, women with past family migration experience are significantly more likely to engage in self-employment and less likely to supply unpaid work. The same relationships do not hold for men. These results suggest that while left-behind women in Albania may take on the extra burden associated with the migration of male family members, they gain employment opportunities upon their return.

Contribution of “Women’s Gold” to West African Livelihoods: The Case of Shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) in Burkina Faso

Contribution of “Women’s Gold” to West African Livelihoods: The Case of Shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) in Burkina Faso. This paper (i) quantifies the contribution that Vitellaria paradoxa makes to the total income of rural households belonging to different economic groups in two areas of Burkina Faso; (ii) quantifies the involvement of women in shea nuts and fruits collection and processing; and (iii) empirically verifies the “gap filling” function of shea products in Burkina Faso by quantifying the commercialization and subsistence use of shea fruits, nuts, and butter between agricultural seasons. Based on data collected from structured household surveys used on a quarterly basis during a one-year period on 536 households, we demonstrate that the reliance on shea is generally high in the sampled populations, and is at its highest for the poorest households, for which it contributes 12 % of total household income. Moreover, shea nut collection and processing was found to provide a valuable source of cash income to female household members who otherwise have very few income possibilities. Finally, due to its ecology, shea fills in an income gap during a period where human activities are at their highest while income is at its lowest. Although shea is crucial for poor people’s livelihoods and for the generation of income for women, its harvesting and processing are time-consuming activities that generate low returns per unit of labor. We argue that shea collection and processing should therefore not be considered as a remedy to poverty but instead as a way for households to diversify their livelihood strategy and decrease their vulnerability to food insecurity and climate variability.

Prevalence and risk factors of malaria in Ethiopia

BackgroundMore than 75% of the total area of Ethiopia is malarious, making malaria the leading public health problem in Ethiopia. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence rate and the associated socio-economic, geographic and demographic factors of malaria based on the rapid diagnosis test (RDT) survey results.MethodsFrom December 2006 to January 2007, a baseline malaria indicator survey in Amhara, Oromiya and Southern Nation Nationalities and People (SNNP) regions of Ethiopia was conducted by The Carter Center. This study uses this data. The method of generalized linear model was used to analyse the data and the response variable was the presence or absence of malaria using the rapid diagnosis test (RDT).ResultsThe analyses show that the RDT result was significantly associated with age and gender. Other significant covariates confounding variables are source of water, trip to obtain water, toilet facility, total number of rooms, material used for walls, and material used for roofing. The prevalence of malaria for households with clean water found to be less. Malaria rapid diagnosis found to be higher for thatch and stick/mud roof and earth/local dung plaster floor. Moreover, spraying anti-malaria to the house was found to be one means of reducing the risk of malaria. Furthermore, the housing condition, source of water and its distance, gender, and ages in the households were identified in order to have two-way interaction effects.ConclusionIndividuals with poor socio-economic conditions are positively associated with malaria infection. Improving the housing condition of the household is one of the means of reducing the risk of malaria. Children and female household members are the most vulnerable to the risk of malaria. Such information is essential to design improved strategic intervention for the reduction of malaria epidemic in Ethiopia.

Household energy economics in rural Ethiopia: A cost-benefit analysis of biogas energy

Limited success in promoting improved energy sources, such as biogas, in rural areas of developing countries has been partly blamed on insufficient understanding of household energy use patterns. In this study, we assess the costs of energy generation from major energy sources (firewood and dung) in rural Ethiopia, as well as the economic potential of biogas as an alternative in addressing both energy and food security challenges. Results show that households in rural areas largely collect their own fuel, with female household members being mainly responsible for the chore. By investing in biogas plants, households could save time and energy, and have a supply of slurry that can be used as fertilizer in agricultural production. A cost-benefit analysis of biogas plants yields positive net present values for households collecting their own energy sources. Even higher net present values are obtained for households purchasing all of their energy needs; these households stand to gain significantly from the financial benefits of energy cost savings with biogas technology. Results are highly dependent on slurry being effectively used as a source of fertilizer and on the price of the replaced energy source. Thus the promotion of slurry use as fertilizer must be an integral part of a successful biogas programme. Another important issue is that at present, biogas plants are highly subsidized and thus the above conditions hold under the assumptions of subsidies. When analysed without subsidies, indicators are still positive, yet amortisation periods are significantly longer and close to the depreciation point, so that investment risks increase.

Increasing access to modern contraceptives: the potential role of community solidarity through altruistic contributions

BackgroundThere is an urgent need for universal access to modern contraceptives in Nigeria, to facilitate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and other national goals. This study provides information on the potential role of community solidarity in increasing access to contraceptives for the most-poor people through exploration of the role of altruism by determining level of altruistic willingness to pay (WTP) for modern contraceptives across different geographic contexts in Nigeria.MethodsIt was a cross-sectional national survey which took place in six states spread across the six-geopolitical zones of the country. In each state, an urban and a rural area were selected for the study, giving a total of 6 urban and 6 rural sites. A pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect information from at least 720 randomly selected householders from each state. The targeted respondent in a household was a female primary care giver of child bearing age (usually the wives), or in her absence, another female household member of child bearing age. A scenario on altruistic WTP was presented before the value was elicited using a binary with open-ended follow-up question format. Test of validity of elicited altruistic WTP was undertaken using Tobit regression.FindingsMore than 50 % of the respondents across all the states were willing to contribute some money so that the very poor would be provided with modern contraceptives. The average amount of money that people were willing to contribute annually was 650 Naira (US$4.5). Mean altruistic WTP differed across SES quintiles and urban-rural divide (p < .01). Multiple regression analysis showed that age was negatively related to altruistic WTP (p < 0.05). However, years of schooling, being employed by government or being a big business person, prior experience of paying for contraceptives and socioeconomic status had statistically significant effects on altruistic WTP (p < 0.05).ConclusionThere is room for community solidarity to ensure that the very poor benefit from modern contraceptives and assure universal coverage with modern contraceptives. The factors that determine altruistic WTP should be harnessed to ensure that altruistic contributions are actually made. The challenge will be how to collect and pool the altruistic contributions for purchasing and delivering modern contraceptives to the most-poor, within the context of community financing.

Food aid and adult nutrition in rural Ethiopia

Insight into the role of safety nets that contribute to adult nutrition is an important component to understanding the dynamics of poverty in developing countries. This article uses panel data from rural Ethiopia on individual nutritional status to test for an effect of public transfers on adult body mass index (BMI). Results show that among adult household members, male members are the primary beneficiaries of food aid as male and female aid recipients tend to invest aid receipts in male household members. These results are consistent with a theory in which additional resources are allocated to members of the household whose market returns are higher or those who engage in activities that expend higher levels of energy. For high-asset households, female household members benefit if the aid recipient is a female. Women in low-asset households appear to be adversely affected by aid receipts, and evidence suggests that women with little bargaining power suffer the most. The results suggest that aid receipts are useful in mitigating fluctuations in adult BMI over a short time period.

Microfinance and gender empowerment

In this paper, we develop a theoretical model of household production, bargaining and credit to analyse how access to microcredit affects intra-household decision-making and welfare, and identify conditions under which female household members are most likely to benefit. We show that, consistent with ethnographic accounts of the impact of microcredit programmes on poor households, access to loans can lead to a variety of outcomes for intra-household decision-making and welfare depending on initial conditions and that, in some instances, women borrowers may experience a decline in welfare. We identify two instances in which a woman is most likely to benefit: when there is scope for investing the loan profitably in a joint activity, and when a large share of the household budget is devoted to household public goods.

Like mother, like daughter? Mother's history of cervical cancer screening and daughter's Human Papillomavirus vaccine uptake in Flanders (Belgium)

We investigated whether and to what extent the uptake of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine by girls aged 12-18 was related to the cervical cancer screening history of age-appropriate older female household members (assumed to be their mothers) in Flanders (Belgium). We studied administrative records on 127,854 female members of the National Alliance of Christian Mutualities, which is the largest health insurance fund in Flanders. Reimbursement data for HPV vaccination of girls for the period 2007-2009 were linked with reimbursement data for cervical cancer screening of their mothers in the three preceding years. A multilevel logit model was used to study associations between both preventive behaviors. In the model we controlled for both the girl's and the mother's age, the province of residence and the socio-economic background of the family. A clear association between a mother's history of participation in cervical cancer screening and her daughter's HPV vaccination initiation was found. The conditional odds of HPV vaccination initiation were more than 4 times higher for girls whose mother had one Pap test than for girls whose mother had none (odds ratio [OR]=4.5; 95% confidence interval [CI]=3.5-5.9). For girls whose mother had three or more Pap tests, the conditional odds were 16 times higher than for girls whose mother did not have any pap tests ([OR]=16.0; 95% [CI]=12.1-21.2). The effect of screening (having received 1 pap smear as compared to none) was larger for girls living in neighborhoods with the lowest median income ([OR]=6.0, 95% [CI]=3.6-10.1). In a situation where both cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination are opportunistic, we found evidence that these preventive behaviors cluster within families.

Household-level predictors of the presence of servants in Northern Orkney, Scotland, 1851–1901

Servants were an important part of the northwestern European household economy in the preindustrial past. This study examines household-level characteristics that are predictive of the presence of rural servants using data from Orkney, Scotland. The number of servants present in a household is related to household composition, landholding size, and the marital status of the household head. In addition, the sex of the particular servant hired reveals that the labor of male and female servants is not fungible. The sex of the servant hired is related to the ratio of male and female household members of working age, the occupation of the head, household composition, and the size of the household's landholding.

Recent Trends in Factor Contributions to Household Income Inequality in Turkey

Making use of official survey data, we examine the evolution of household income inequality in Turkey during the past fifteen years. We observe the contributions to inequality of the main components of household income, namely labor market earnings, non-wage income, and imputed rents. In an effort to obtain clues regarding the gender related socio-economic developments of the period, we also distinguish between the earnings of male and female household members. We find that the earnings inequality among women continues to be higher than among men, and that the gender earnings gap is smaller among wage and salary workers than among the self-employed. Household-level analysis reveals that female earnings have a dis-equalizing impact on household inequality while non-labor income no longer contributes to inequality as much as it did in the 1990s, possibly due to the substantial decline in the interest rates. The change in the sign of the correlation between non-labor income and labor market earnings between 1994 and 2008 suggests that formal and informal redistributive policies of the governments may have been the main factor behind the considerable decline in household income inequality during this period.

Newborn umbilical cord and skin care in Sylhet District, Bangladesh: implications for the promotion of umbilical cord cleansing with topical chlorhexidine

Newborn cord care practices may directly contribute to infections, which account for a large proportion of the four million annual global neonatal deaths. This formative research study assessed current umbilical and skin care knowledge and practices for neonates in Sylhet District, Bangladesh, in preparation for a cluster-randomized trial of the impact of topical chlorhexidine cord cleansing on neonatal mortality and omphalitis. Unstructured interviews (n=60), structured observations (n=20), rating and ranking exercises (n=40) and household surveys (n=400) were conducted to elicit specific behaviors regarding newborn cord and skin care practices. These included hand-washing, skin and cord care at the time of birth, persons engaged in cord care, cord cutting practices, topical applications to the cord at the time of birth, wrapping/dressing of the cord stump and use of skin-to-skin care. Overall 90% of deliveries occurred at home. The umbilical cord was almost always (98%) cut after delivery of the placenta, and cut by mothers in more than half the cases (57%). Substances were commonly (52%) applied to the stump after cord cutting; turmeric was the most common application (83%). Umbilical stump care revolved around bathing, skin massage with mustard oil and heat massage on the umbilical stump. Overall 40% of newborns were bathed on the day of birth. Mothers were the principal provider for skin and cord care during the neonatal period and 9% of them reported umbilical infections in their infants. Unhygienic cord care practices are prevalent in the study area. Efforts to promote hand-washing, cord cutting with clean instruments and avoiding unclean home applications to the cord may reduce exposure and improve neonatal outcomes. Such efforts should broadly target a range of caregivers, including mothers and other female household members.

Determinants of off-farm participation decision of farm households in Ethiopia

This study analyses the determinants of off-farm work participation decisions of farm households in Ethiopia. A bivariate probit model is applied to account for the simultaneity of participation decisions of both male and female members of farm households. The results of the analysis show that human capital variables such as health and training on non-farm activities have a positive effect on the off-farm participation decisions of male members of farm households. The education status of the head has no significant impact on the participation decisions of the members of the family as most of the off-farm activities do not require formal education. The availability of credit and transfer income is the other factors that have a positive impact on the decisions of male members to participate in off-farm activities. The effects of family and farm characteristics are also analysed. Finally, policies that aim to increase the off-farm work participation decisions of family members should take into consideration the difference in responses to the various factors that affect the off-farm work decisions of male and female members of farm households.

Labor market participation of Chinese agricultural households: Empirical evidence from Zhejiang province

This work is devoted to the analysis of the different labor market participation regimes of Chinese farm households over the reform process in the 1980s and 1990s. Using household data over the period 1986–2002 from the province Zhejiang, we apply a multinomial logit model to empirically examine household, farm, and regional characteristics affecting the probability that farmers participate in one of four alternative labor market regimes. As generally accepted, off-farm participation is the dominant form of farm households’ labor market participation. But rural households show additionally a significant impact on rural employment mainly linked with non-agricultural household business. Results suggest that labor market decisions are significantly related to several family, farm, and village characteristics. In particular, we find education to be a key determinant of participation. Furthermore, results point to a higher probability of female household members to take up off-farm work.

Household Access to Microcredit and Children's Food Security in Rural Malawi: A Gender Perspective

Using data from the 1995 Malawi Financial Markets and Food Security Survey, this study seeks to discover if women's relative control over household resources or intra-household bargaining power in rural Malawi, gauged by their access to microcredit, plays a role in children's food security, measured by anthropometric nutritional Z-scores. Access to microcredit is assessed in a novel way as self-reported credit limits at microcredit organizations. Since credit limits, that is, the maximum sums that might be borrowed, hinge upon supply-side factors such as the availability of credit programs and the financial resources of lenders, it is plausible they are more exogenous than demand driven loan uptake or participation in microcredit organizations, the common ways of gauging access to microcredit. It is indicated that whereas the access to microcredit of adult female household members improves 0–6 year old girls', though not boys', long-term nutrition as measured by height-for-age, the access to microcredit of male members has no such salutary effect on either girls' or boys' nutritional status. This may be interpreted as evidence of a positive relation between women's relative control over household resources and young girls' food security. That women's access to microcredit improves young girls' long-term nutrition may be explained in part by the subsidiary finding that it raises household expenditure on food.