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Abstract:
In Ethiopia, women’s participation in their
own matters and women’s benefit from social,
economic and political spheres is low.
Traditional, social and economic values
constrain the rights of women and their
opportunities to direct their own lives or
participate in and contribute to community
and national development (Bogalech and
Mengistu, 2007). Gender imbalances exist in
the division of labour, access to resources,
distribution of income, and decision-making.
In the history of Ethiopia, women are
primarily tasked with food production and
other household level activities. Rights to
land, credit, and other productive resources
are difficult for women to attain. In 1993,
the government of the Federal Democratic
Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) issued the
National Ethiopian Policy on Women and
granted equal rights for women under the
constitution. Moreover, a new family law was
recently instituted focusing on the
advancement of women, affirmative action, and
provision for higher education, employment
and promotion in the workplace (FDRE, 1993).
The 2011 Ethiopia Demographic and Health
Survey (EDHS) collected data related to
women’s empowerment and contraceptive use,
which provides an
excellent opportunity to study this
relationship in the Ethiopian context. The
various dimensions of empowerment –economic,
socio-cultural, familial/interpersonal,
legal, political and psychological– may each
influence the reproductive health of women.
Despite high fertility and a high unmet need
for family planning the country contraceptive
prevalence rate for married women is very low
(28.6%). This study will explore the
relationship between major dimensions of
women’s empowerment and their use of
contraception.