The influence of women's changing roles and status in Bangladesh's fertility transition: Evidence from a study of credit programs and contraceptive use

Multivariate analyses of data from a recent study in rural Bangladesh suggest that women's access to credit provided by two organizations, Grameen Bank and BRAG, augments use of contraception. This effect increases with the duration of the women's involvement in the credit programs. Although three of eight measures of women's empowerment have statistically significant effects an contraceptive use (women's economic security and contribution to family support, freedom of mobility, and relative freedom from domination by the family), these variables account for surprisingly little of the effect of credit on contraceptive use. The authors present qualitative data describing how the credit programs empower women, and speculate about other paths through which participation in them may influence contraceptive use. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.