Bangladesh's family planning success story: A gender perspective

Working within the constraints of a social system in which women are subordinated and secluded, the Bangladeshi family planning program uses village-based female workers to deliver contraceptive information and supplies to women in their homes. In-depth interviews conducted with 104 women and 92 men (including 85 couples) as part of an ethnographic study in rural Bangladesh suggest that this strategy, despite ifs success in increasing contraceptive prevalence, often fails to provide adequate information and support to contraceptive users and may actually reinforce women's isolation and powerlessness by accommodating existing gender norms. In addition, the program has placed the costs of fertility control primarily on women by emphasizing female methods and failing to involve men.