Power Relations and Contraceptive Use: Gender Differentials in Bangladesh

Previous research tends to ignore men and women’s contraceptive use based on existing power relations at the household level. Male role theory and power theory suggest that although men dominate at the household level and influence all the decisions that have taken place, these men become really invisible when it comes to contraceptive use. The present study attempts to explain the impact of power relations on differential contraceptive use among men and women in Bangladesh. Since the main objective of this research is to see differentials based on gender, men’s and women’s data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2000 have been matched based on cluster number, household number, and line number and merged to get sample size of 2249. The results suggest that power relations at the household level have a significant impact in transcending barriers to contraceptive use. Key words: gender differential; contraceptive use; power relations; and hierarchical linear model Résumé: Les recherches antérieures ont une tendance d’ignorer l’utilisation de contracceptif des hommes et des femmes, basée sur le rapport de force existant au niveau familial. La théorie du rôle masculin et la théorie du pouvoir suggère que même si les hommes dominent sur les femmes au niveau familial et qu’ils exercent une influence sur toutes les décisions, ils deviennent invisibles quand il s’agit de l’utilisation de contraceptifs. L’études présente cherche à expliquer l’effet du rapport de force sur l’utilisation de contraceptifs chez les hommes et les femmes au Bangladesh. L’objectif de cette recherche est de dévoiler les différences chez les deux 1-15 sexes. Les données sur les hommes et les femmes venant de l’enquête de la démographie et de la santé du Bangladesh en 2000 sont bien assorties pour avoir un échantillon de 2249 personnes. Le réslutat montre que le rapport de force au niveau familal a une influence significative sur l’utilisation de contraceptifs. Mots-Clés: différences de sexe; utilisaiton de contraceptifs; rapport de force; modèle linéaire hiérarchiqu

Migration, Residential Mobility, and Poverty in Rural Pennsylvania

Because of its profound implications for growth and decline in rural America, migration has long been a topic of interest. Migration is critical for explaining processes of urbanization, as workers venture into nonmetro counties to live while commuting to jobs in the central cities and expanding suburbs of metro America. Rural sociologists have recently found a pattern of urban to rural migration among the poor. Pushed by expensive and poor-quality housing in the city and attracted by ample and low-cost housing and a higher quality of life in the countryside, the poor often “leapfrog over the city’s suburban ring to settle in one or a group of economically distressed and depopulated towns in a rural periphery” (Fitchen, 1995, p. 193). This article uses the 1990 Census and a special 1991 survey of low-income families living in nonmetro areas of Pennsylvania to explore the reasons the poor move