Analysis of Community Variations in Women's Status and Fertility

这项研究通过考察婚姻和生育与妇女地位变化的关系，发展了婚姻和生育的模型。结婚的时间和婚内生育的时间被认为是一个连续的决策过程的结果，这个决策过程可能因群体和社会阶层而异。这种差异反过来可能反映了不同社区在教育和经济机会方面的差异。妇女经济独立的程度、获得当代知识的机会和生活在平等家庭中的程度被指定为衡量妇女地位的三个关键指标。据推测，在这些方面地位的提高会导致婚姻延迟和婚姻内生育能力的限制。这些假设将使用从两组妇女获得的数据进行检验，一组年龄在25-31岁，另一组年龄在40-49岁，她们生活在哥伦比亚四个地理、经济和社会上不同的农村分区域和波哥大大都市。选择这些领域是为了最大限度地提高妇女地位这一关键方面的可变性。这项研究很重要，因为它的发现有望为妇女在社区中的地位对其生育能力的影响提供令人信服的证据。

This study develops models of marriage and fertility by examining their links to variations in women's status. The timing of marriage and of marital fertility are posited to be the result of a sequential decision-making process that may differ among cohorts and by social strata. This variability, in turn, may reflect differences in educational and economic opportunities across communities. The extent to which women are economically independent, have access to contemporary knowledge, and live in egalitarian families are specified as three key measures of women's status. Increases in status in terms of these dimensions are hypothesized to lead to delays in marriage and to fertility limitations within marriage. These hypotheses will be tested using data procured from two groups of women, one aged 25-31 and those the other 40-49, who live in four geographically, economically, and socially distinct rural subregions of Colombia and in metropolitan Bogota. These areas were selected to maximize variability on the key dimensions of women's status. This research is important in that its findings promise to provide cogent evidence about the effects of women's status within a community on their fertility.