Bridewealth and Male Dominance: Reproductive Decision Making among Couples in Uganda

Tom O. Owuor, University of Maryland

Despite the volume of work on the role men play in marital fertility decisions, there has been little effort to obtain direct empirical estimates of the effect of men's preferences on reproductive behavior (Dodoo, 1998). The existing studies point to the gendered difference in fertility preference as an indicator of relative dominance. However, fertility preference in sub-Saharan Africa is rooted in the cultural construction of gender and in the nature of marital formation. For instance, the payment of bridewealth in many African societies generally underscores the collective nature of a marriage contract between two lineage groups (Caldwell, 1987). This payment is likely also to creates unequal relationships between husbands and wives, and reinforce men’s control over women’s social and private lives. In this paper, I employ the Uganda 1995\96 negotiating reproductive outcomes to examine whether fertility preference is conditioned by cultural factors such as bridewealth payment.