The Effect of Formal Education on Nigerian Women’s Attitude Towards Family Planning
Chapter One
AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of formal education on the attitude of Nigerian women towards family planning.
Other specific objectives of the study include:
- To ascertain the difference in the attitude of women towards formal education in Nigerian society.
- To examine whether there is a difference in the attitude of women towards family planning.
- To examine whether a difference exists between the attitudes of women who have formal education and those who do not.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
This chapter reviews the literature on the effect of formal education on Nigerian women’s attitudes towards family planning. It discusses issues arising from the topic of interest as viewed from different perspectives, with a view of giving a theoretical and empirical foundation to the study.
LITERATURE REVIEW
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF FAMILY PLANNING
Family planning refers to the use of modern contraception and other methods of birth control to regulate the number, timing, and spacing of human births. It allows parents, particularly mothers, to plan their lives without being overly subject to sexual and social imperatives. However, family planning is not seen by all as a humane or necessary intervention. It is an arena of contestation within broader social and political conflicts involving religious and cultural injunctions, patriarchal subordination of women, social-class formation, and global political and economic relations. Attempts to control human reproduction are not entirely a modern phenomenon. Throughout history, human beings have engaged in both pro-and antinatalist practices directed at enhancing social welfare. In many foraging and agricultural societies, a variety of methods such as prolonged breast-feeding were used to space births and maintain an equilibrium between resources and population size. The idea of modern population control is attributed to Thomas Malthus (1766–1834), who in 1798 articulated his doctrine attributing virtually all major social and environmental problems to population expansion associated with the industrial revolution. However, as a clergyman turned economist, Malthus was opposed to artificial methods of fertility control. He advocated abstinence letting nature take its toll and allowing the poor to die. In contrast, birth control emerged as a radical social movement led by socialists and feminists in the early twentieth century in the United States. The anarchist Emma Goldman (1869–1940) promoted birth control not only as a woman’s right and worker’s right but also as a means to sexual freedom outside of conventional marriage. But soon birth control became increasingly medicalized and associated with science and corporate control as well as with the control of reproduction within marriage and conventional family life. As the radicals lost their leadership of the birth control movement to professional experts, mostly male doctors, by the 1920s birth control, which refers to voluntary and individual choice in control of reproduction, became aligned with population control, that is, a political movement by dominant groups to control the reproduction of socially subordinate groups. During the influx of new immigrants in the 1920s and 1930s and during the Depression, when the ranks of the unemployed were swelling, eugenicist (hereditary improvement) ideology and programs for immigration control and social engineering gained much ground in the United States. Even the birth-control pioneer Margaret Sanger (1879–1966) and suffragists such as Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910) and Ida Husted Harper (1851–1931) surrendered to ruling-class interests and eugenics, calling for birth control among the poor, blacks, and immigrants as a means of counteracting the declining birth rates of native-born whites.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to analyse the effect of formal education on Nigerian women’s attitude towards family planning using couples in Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos State as our case study.
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
Primary source and
Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information regarding the effect of formal education on Nigerian women’s attitude towards family planning. This Sampling was carried out with a total of 200 questionnaires administered. among couples in Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos State whom were selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
INTRODUCTION
It is important to reiterate that the objective of this study was the effect of formal education on Nigerian women’s attitude towards family planning.
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in evaluating examine the effect of formal education on Nigerian women’s attitude towards family planning.
SUMMARY
This study was undertaken to examine the effect of formal education on Nigerian women’s attitude towards family planning. The study opened with chapter one where the statement of the problem was clearly defined. The study objectives and research hypotheses were defined and formulated respectively. The study reviewed related and relevant literatures. The chapter two gave the conceptual framework, empirical and theoretical studies. The third chapter described the methodology employed by the researcher in collecting both the primary and the secondary data. The research method employed here is the descriptive survey method. The study analyzed and presented the data collected in tables and the hypotheses were tested using the chi square to test hypothesis. While the fifth chapter gives the study summary and conclusion.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This study reveals that adult educational programmes will significantly influence family planning among couples, that the socio-economic status of couples will have significant effect on their level of family planning also that religious belief of couples will significantly have relationship with their level of family planning. We found that there is a significant difference between the attitude of the educated couples towards family planning and those who are illiterates. This shows that adult educational programmes’ has significance influence on the level of family planning among couples in Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos State.
REFERENCES
- African Union (2003). Protocol on people’s Rights and Rights of women. Peculiar Insticts Production.
- Agbakwuru, C. (2002). ‘The role of primary education in the promotion of national integration and cohesion’. Knowledge Review 1(2), 15-23.
- Agbakwuru, C. (2000). ‘The role of school staff in reducing drop-out rates in the U.B.E. scheme’. International Journal of life long education 4 (5) 53-64.
- CEDAW (1979). Convention for elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. Accessed online at www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm on September 19, 2013.
- Gender statistics (2010). ‘Improving the lives of women and girls in Nigeria: Issues, policies and actions’. British Council, Nigeria, 2012.
- Gender statistics (2010). United States Agency for International Development. Accessed online at http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/cross-cutting_programs/wid/wid_stats.html on September 19,
