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WOMEN FORGET THAT MEN ARE THE MASTERS

WOMEN FORGET THAT MEN ARE THE MASTERS. Fertility, Identity & Social Value. Internet – Greatland Gusii Pictures www.home.attbi.com/~jomoke/panorama.htm. Traditional Fertility Beliefs & Values. 3 Basic Principles of Traditional Fertility

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WOMEN FORGET THAT MEN ARE THE MASTERS

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  1. WOMEN FORGET THAT MEN ARE THE MASTERS Fertility, Identity & Social Value Internet – Greatland Gusii Pictures www.home.attbi.com/~jomoke/panorama.htm

  2. Traditional Fertility Beliefs & Values 3 Basic Principles of Traditional Fertility Woman bear children early and continue as long as she was able • Men (any age, even if married) should invest available wealth (cattle, goats, surplus grains, etc.) as bridewealth payment for childbearing wives (selves and sons ) • Children born ‘out of wedlock’ always find a man willing to claim them as legal father

  3. Traditional Fertility Beliefs & Values • Men were commemorated by sons in the ancestor cult • Fertility associated with innocence, infertility with misfortune and guilt • Men want daughters to bring bridewealth and sons to carry family name • Childbearing capacity of a woman main value transferred for bridewealth. • Widows, Co-wife competition & ‘Women Marriages’

  4. ‘Traditional’ Family Planning • Abstinence • Natural Contraceptives for women • Diet (for men) • Polygyny

  5. Fertility Patterns in Presently National birth rates declined, Kisii rates highest in country. Women want 2-3 children of each sex . • Marital insecurity and competition among co-wives prompts women to have many children. • Views toward fertility not static –change according to circumstances. • Spouses often miscommunicate or fail to communicate desires about children.

  6. Fertility in Kissi Today • Circumcision rituals put strong emphases on male and female fertility • Parenthood is prestigious • Infertility a disaster, for both sexes • Acceptable for men not women to have extramarital affairs • Adultery only for women; except for men with married women

  7. The value of Children • Children have become economic burdens • Land Scarcity • Education expensive • Can no longer be counted on for labor

  8. Modern Family Planning Knowledge, Attitude & Practice • Introduced through mother and child care in 1960s • Traditional knowledge of natural herbal contraception dying out • Contraceptive methods very limited • Family Planning only for ‘married’ women • Women punished for illegal pregnancy

  9. Women’s Reasons For Contraceptive Use • Economic burden of children • Enough children of ‘right sex’ • Pregnancies are burdens • Need for interval between children (spacing)

  10. Women’s reason for not using contraceptives • Side effects and rumors about side effects • Limited family planning services at clinics • Social repercussions • “Children are not enough” • “Husband against” • Bridewealth not paid or want to initiate

  11. Male Attitudes • Contraceptives not for them (ok for neighbors). • Uninterested-- their parental responsibilities light. • Side effects not good. • Undermines ‘man’s authority in his house’ • “wife gets the upper hand” • “husband has no say” • “women go looking for other men”

  12. Male Attitudes • Contraception a woman’s problem – • Control (fertility & sexuality) not a man’s concern. • Why large number of children • Sons to remember their fathers • Daughters to pay for wives of sons

  13. Men and Women’s Attitudes toward condoms • Not accepted and popular • “men do not like such things” • “they make a man not function” • “Only for extra-marital sex, not for home use” • Beliefs contribute to spread of sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDs

  14. Identity Social Value & Fertility • Obscure Reasons for Conflicting Fertility Interests • Male authority increasingly being challenged • Male identity deeply rooted ability to control wife’s fertility, and number of children he has • Women’s expanding social & economic roles within household do not put them in same position as men.

  15. Control Over FertilityWho is in Control? • Men • Woman’s fertility confers access to land • Men’s signatures needed for women to be sterilized • Male control modified and threatened by introduction of modern contraceptives • Women • Use contraceptives without their husbands knowledge • Use fertility strategically • Many men feel ‘It is women’s decision in the end’.

  16. Conflicting Fertility Interests • An inherent feature in the existential identities of women and men to have children • Childbearing role an inherent role for women; but difficult to negotiate. • For men: a ‘natural’ role to provide his wife with children. • ‘Natural’ role of childbearing may be changing slowly as new female social roles emerge.

  17. Internet – Greatland Gusii Pictures www.home.attbi.com/~jomoke/panorama.htm

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