Women’s bargaining power and contraception use in post-Soviet Tajikistan

ABSTRACT

This article aims to examine the relationship between women’s household bargaining power and their adoption of modern contraception in post-Soviet Tajikistan using the 2012 Demographic and Health Survey. The study uses direct measures of bargaining weights: a woman’s ability to make decisions about her own health care; visits to her family or relatives; and contraceptive use. An additional measure defining a woman’s financial capability to receive medical treatment for herself is added in the analysis to understand its correlation to women’s contraceptive-use behaviour. The probability of using contraception is 187 percentage points higher for a woman who has both control over her own health care and financial means to get medical help than a woman who does not have these choices. Having a say in the decision to control births increases the probability of using contraception by 98 percentage points. Our findings reveal that certain aspects of a woman’s household decision-making and financial freedom are relevant to explain her contraceptive-use behaviour.

KEYWORDS:

• Tajikistan
• decision-making power
• contraception
• family planning
• fertility

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous referees, whose comments and feedback substantially improved the quality of this contribution. We are grateful to Professor Charles M. Becker for his invaluable comments on previous versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ‘Bargaining power’ and ‘decision-making power’ will be used interchangeably throughout the article. We also discuss other terms used in previous studies.

2 Zakluchitelnie zamechaniya Komiteta po likvidasii diskriminasii v otnoshenii jenshin: Tajikistan [Concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Tajikistan], (CEDAW/C/TJK/CO/3 February 2007), <http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/16313018419e3b4ac12572a400337a3e/$FILE/N0724356.pdf>.

3 Kak v Khatlonskoi oblasti uchili planirovat sem'u [How family planning was taught in Khatlon region], <http://cso-central.asia/kak-v-xatlonskoj-oblasti-uchili-planirovat-semyu/>.

4 UNICEF’s The State of the World’s Children 2010; WHO World Health Statistics.

5 Kak v Khatlonskoi oblasti uchili planirovat sem'u [How family planning was taught in Khatlon region], <http://cso-central.asia/kak-v-xatlonskoj-oblasti-uchili-planirovat-semyu/>.

6 UNFPA Tajikistan Press Release, ‘Reproduktivnoe zdorov’e - osnova blagopoluchiya naseleniya' [Reproductive health is a foundation for populations' wellbeing]’, <https://tajikistan.unfpa.org/ru/news/репродуктивное-здоровье-–-основа-благополучия-населения>.

7 Review of the National Programme on the Development of Family Medicine 2011–2015 in Tajikistan, <http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/314433/Review-of-the-National-Programmeme-on-the-Development-of-Family-Medicine-2011-2015-in-the-Republic-of-Tajikistan-rev1.pdf>.

8 Vlasti Tajikistana reshili umenshit rojdaemost v strane [The government of Tajikistan has decided to reduce births in the country], <https://rus.ozodi.org/a/30103238.html?fbclid=IwAR2XIPvod6CKk357PwU_Z7im1OeWvOaUx_nPqnu9gNkP3obH8GTBRdvJCTA>.