© Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | Frederic Courbet | Family planning consultation in Dakar, Senegal | 2012
How family planning supports women's economic empowerment
Access to income and assets
Family planning increases women’s earnings and control over assets
The economic consequences of reproductive health and family planning
A social experiment providing access to quality reproductive health and family planning in Bangladesh saw a 40 percent increase in women’s earnings and a 25 percent increase in women’s control over assets.
Canning and Schultz | 2012
Family planning after the first birth increases LFPR
Number and spacing of children and women's employment in Africa
Across 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, women with one fewer child were 20 percent more likely to have a non-farm job; those who increased birth spacing by a year were 11 percent more likely to have a non-farm job.
Longwe et al. | 2013
Fertility, female labor force participation, and the demographic dividend
Female labor force participation among women age 25–39 declines by 10–15 percent with each additional child.
Bloom et al. | 2009
The spacing of births and women’s subsequent earnings: Evidence from a natural experiment
Women who space births for longer intervals can return to work between births, which reduces disruption of their participation in the workforce.
Karimi | 2014
Adolescent mothers tend to work fewer hours and make less per hour than adult mothers
Costs of adolescent childbearing: Evidence from Chile, Barbados, Guatemala, and Mexico
Young teen mothers earn 22 percent less than older teen mothers; those who gave birth before age 18 were six times more likely to live in poverty compared to those who gave birth after age 21.
Buvinic | 1998
Incompatibility between pregnancy and educational projects
Among women coming from poverty, monthly earnings of teen mothers were 90 percent lower than those of adult mothers.
Herrera et al. | 2014
Control of and benefit from economic gains
Adolescent mothers are often not seen as capable of making financial decisions
Growing up global: The changing transitions to adulthood in developing countries
Adolescent mothers were twice as likely to be restricted from keeping their own money.
Lloyd | 2005
Estimating the effect of adolescent fertility on educational attainment
Adolescent mothers were 60 percent more likely to need permission from their husbands to go to the market or make independent financial transactions.
Ranchhod et al. | 2011
Power to make decisions
Family planning can increase women’s ability to make household decisions
Women’s voices, women’s lives: The impact of family planning
Women using contraception were more likely to communicate and share decision-making power with their husbands compared to non-users.
Barnett and Stein | 1998
How family planning produces further benefit
Education
Adolescent mothers are more likely to delay education and drop out of school
The health consequences of adolescent sexual and fertility behavior in sub-Saharan Africa
Adolescent mothers were 42 percent more likely to drop out of high school; giving birth before age 17 reduced women’s schooling by 1.25 years.
Zabin and Kiragu | 1998
The case for investing in research to increase access and use of contraception
This study posited that Kenya’s GDP would rise by $3.4 billion (an increase of roughly 7 percent of current GDP) if 200,000 adolescent mothers in Kenya finished high school before having children.
Greene and Merrick | 2015
Gender-based violence
Adolescent mothers are more likely to be physically abused by their partners
Economic impacts of child marriage: A review of the literature
This study found that gender-based violence in the household closely correlated with women’s reduced control over household assets and an inability to generate independent income for fear of punishment. Women were 50 percent less likely to be beaten in the past year if they had their first child after age 21 and 70 percent less likely to be beaten if they had their first child after age 25.
Parsons et al. | 2015
Delayed marriage
Child marriage and adolescent pregnancy are tightly interlinked, especially due to poor family planning
Child marriage, adolescent pregnancy and family formation in West and Central Africa: Patterns, trends, and drivers of change
Among adolescent pregnancies in the developing world, 90 percent were to girls who were already married.
Fedd et al. | 2015
The case for investing in research to increase access and use of contraception
A data modeling exercise found that every dollar spent on adolescent family planning in Uganda could save $3 in reduced health costs, productivity increases, and other societal benefits.
Greene and Merrick | 2015
Intergenerational effects on childhood mortality
Children of adolescent mothers experience higher mortality rates
Health outcomes for children born to teen mothers in Cape Town, South Africa
Mortality rates for infants born to teen mothers were 25 percent higher than those of infants born to adult mothers.
Ardington et al. | 2011
Intergenerational effects on stunting
Children of adolescent mothers are more likely to develop stunting
Trends in teenage childbearing and schooling outcomes for children born to teens in South Africa
A study in South Africa found that children were four times more likely to be underweight and twice as likely to be stunted if born to an adolescent mother.
Branson et al. | 2013
Costs of adolescent childbearing: Evidence from Chile, Barbados, Guatemala, and Mexico
In Chile, teen mothers living in poverty have children that are on average 0.3 standard deviations smaller than those of poor adult mothers.
Buvinic | 1998
Intergenerational effects on education
Children of adolescent mothers are more likely to experience poor educational outcomes
The efficacy of interventions to reduce adolescent childbearing in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review
African children born to teen mothers attained 0.1–0.2 fewer years of schooling than those born to older mothers of similar socioeconomic status.
McQueston et al. | 2012
Revisiting the "crisis" in teen births: What is the impact of teen births on young mothers and their children?
Children born to teen mothers are 9 percent more likely to drop out of primary school.
Branson et al. | 2015