آزمون تاثیر برابری جنسیتی بر روی بهداشت باروری: تجزیه و تحلیل کشورهای در حال توسعه

This paper proposes a conceptual framework to explore the impact of gender equality on women's reproductive health with economic and political development as background factors. The data for the study are obtained from 136 developing countries. Structural equation analysis is used to test the hypotheses. The proposed model of women's reproductive health is basically supported by the empirical findings from the developing countries. First, the findings underscore the proposition that gender equality has a pivotal role to play in the promotion of women's reproductive health. The second finding points to the importance of economic development in predicating women's reproductive health. Finally, a positive and statistically significant relationship is found between economic development and gender equality. The results reinforce the Cairo Program of Action that women's reproductive health is contingent upon development policies and gender equality in society.

Reproductive health is a relatively new concept in the international discussion on health and population (Ashford, 2001). About two decades ago, much of the world's attention centered on the demographic goal of reducing population size especially in developing countries. The global women's rights movement in the 1990s changed the discourse on population and health fields by recognizing that women's health is contingent upon the social environment and the power relations between women and men (Mann, 1996 and Mann, 1997). The ICPD Program of Action (1994, 2004), the Beijing Platform of Action (1995), and the United Nations Millennium Declaration (2000) have all reiterated the international obligations to the advancement of women's reproductive health. Reproductive health is defined as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of diseases or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes.” (Chapter VII, ICPD, 1994).