Women's Schooling and Child Care in the Demographic Transition: A Mexican Case Study

Abstract

THE QUESTION OF HOW FEMALE SCHOOL ATTENDANCE influences fertility and child survival in developing countries has emerged as an important problem in the analysis of demographic change and the evaluation of health and population policies. An extensive research literature based on national surveys and censuses conducted in developing countries shows maternal schooling to be a highly consistent household-level predictor of reduced fertility and child mortality, even when other socioeconomic factors are controlled.' This has led to proposals for expanding female school enrollment as a means of facilitating future reductions in fertility and child mortality rates in those countries where they remain high-despite scant information on the processes through which these reductions would occur.2 Gender equality in access to schooling can be justified without reference to the consequences for health and population growth, let alone scientific analysis of the processes involved. But consideration of expanded opportunities for schooling as an instrument of health and population policy calls for a deeper understanding of how the formal education of women affects their reproductive and health behavior.3 The research reported in this article was designed to contribute to that understanding through community-level studies in Mexico. The robust and widespread associations found between women's schooling and demographic variables are at once extremely familiar and