Abstract
Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data are used to examine what predicts current contraception and condom use among married women in Ghana. Women’s gender-based power is examined in the three dimensions of interpersonal decision-making power, household status, and socioeconomic status; these dimensions are considered as predictor or focal variables. Ghanaian women’s higher sexual decision-making power, greater education, work outside of the home, work for pay, more living children, and monogamous marriages are associated with a greater likelihood of contraceptive use. Higher contraceptive use is found among young urban women who do not want more children and who have been visited by a family planning worker. In contrast, condom use is shaped by different factors that highlight its distinctiveness as being male-controlled. Policy planning should consider the importance of women’s power and the uniqueness of condom use as a male-controlled contraceptive method as well as the positive effect of contact with a family planning worker in shaping both contraceptive and condom use.