POWRE: Women's Social Networks and Fertility in Cameroon

Carleton College, Northfield MN

Investigators

Abstract

The end of the Cold War has been accompanied by economic reversals and ongoing political crises in sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, fertility has decreased while urban populations have increased. This expanding urban population survives the hardship of economic and political crisis through mutual aid and social control provided by voluntary ethnic (home-town) associations. This project will address the relationship among these three features of urban Cameroonian society focusing on women's reproductive health among Cameroon's most populous ethnic group, the Bamileke. It will investigate how the material and political threats facing urban Bamileke migrants in Yaounde affect women's fertility decisions. In particular, it will examine the effect of Bamileke women's social networks (fellow association members, friends, neighbors, and kin) on how they assess and use contraceptives, on the timing and spacing of births, and on whether and when they seek traditional or modern, public or private obstetric and gynecological care. This project will have two major components. The first will provide Feldman-Savelsberg with training in anthropological demography. The second will support the internationally-collaborative field-research segment of the project, to be undertaken in Yaounde, Cameroon. This project will help us understand the puzzle of fertility change in Africa and the effect of post-Cold War social change on world population. It will also address the puzzle of why ethnic conflict might increase in urban Africa during a time of the development of a more open, democratic society. In addition, it will contribute to the understanding of one aspect of the role of urban "home-town" associations in the development of civil society in Africa. Finally, this project will potentially enhance women's health care by placing women's reproductive health-care beliefs and behaviors with the context of their social network relationships. Because the work will take place in Africa and will involve African faculty and graduate students, this project will foster U.S.-African partnerships. It will also provide the basis for development of new courses on social network analysis and anthropological demography. This POWRE project will provide a unique combination of training, research, and international collaboration at a crucial juncture in Feldman-Savelsberg's career development. It will support a shift in her research agenda (from rural to urban Africa, and from infertility to a broader range of reproductive decisions) and provide the opportunity for interdisciplinary training to support this new research agenda.