The Career Woman and Reproductive Health Behaviour in Nigeria. A Case Study of Ile-Ife and Lagos

The maternal mortality rate in Nigeria is still very high and as such has been topical. This problem is partly a result of patriarchy and therefore has been of great interest to many scholars. This study was aimed at creating knowledge on reproductive behaviour of career women and the role of men in such behaviour. The study was carried out in Ile-Ife and Lagos. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used. Quantitative method was used to get a larger sample and qualitative was used so as to bring out those things that can not be elicited from the questionnaires. The research instruments were in-depth interview schedule and questionnaires. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 200 respondents. Only 133 respondents completed the questionnaires and 10 respondents were interviewed in-depth. The respondents were selected from 10 different professions-medicine, law, teaching, police, banking, accountancy, nursing, pharmacy and administration. The findings were that professional women got married and had their first babies slightly later than their illiterate sisters, patronize good hospitals for antenatal care and delivery of their babies and use mainly orthodox family planning methods. It was equally found that men play a major role in the reproductive health behaviour of professional women. It was concluded that the knowledge perception and attitudes of men towards the reproductive health of women have a lot of implication for women's health, survival and that of their children. It was therefore recommended that any intervention programme towards change of women's reproductive behaviour should also target men if it is to be successful. Gender & Behaviour Vol.3 2005: 406-42