Abstract

PIP: The roles of education and labor force participation in the reproductive behavior of women (aged 20-29 and 30-39) were analyzed using data from the 1975 Pakistan Fertility Survey. Analysis shows that urban women of both age groups fare better than rural women with respect to overall literacy and educational achievement. No significant differentials were observed between urban and rural women as regards labor force participation. The difficulty in presenting a true picture of the work status of Pakistani women is attributed to the difficulty of defining the concept of female labor force participation, not to mention biases in response and enumeration during the survey. Nevertheless, it is suggested that most urban and rural women are either not economically active or are engaged in traditional activities which do not provide stimulus for changes in their fertility behavior. With respect to education, the data shows that the effect of education on contraceptive use is statistically significant for urban women, but not for rural women, urban women being 3 times greater users of contraceptives than rural women. Work status did not significantly affect ever contraceptive use. The findings lend support to the hypothesis that education reduces female vulnerability to unwanted pregnancies by increasing age at 1st marriage, by becoming more aware of available contraceptive methods, and by limiting family size. Thus, policy should be geared towards providing educational opportunities for both rural and urban women.