Polygyny and fertility differentials among the Yoruba of Western Nigeria

Abstract

Many factors affect the fertility level of women, and the type of marital union of a woman is one of these factors. The sub-thesis investigates the fetility differentials among women in monogamous unions and women in polygynous unions. It makes use of two data sets collected among the Yoruba women of Western Nigeria. The first survey was conducted in Ibadan and the second survey was conducted in Ibadan and Western Nigeria. Both surveys were conducted in 1973. The analysis of the two data sets indicates that the educational level, religion and age of a woman are some of the factors that affect her chance of entering into either a polygynous or a monogamous union. Some factors like age, occupation and education helped raise the fertiltiy levels of women in polygynous unions. But some other factors like length of abstinence, and marital mobility affected the fertility level of women in polygynous unions negatively In general, women in polygynous unions had a higher fertility level compared to women in monogamous unions, mostly because they had higher ages. But after standardizing for the age differences and taking into account the difference in other variables, like education, occupation, and abstinence period the women in the two groups show similar fertility levels. Polygyny is very widely accepted by the society and about half of all the women were in such a union. Most of the women who are not in polygynous unions still have a high chance of entering such a union. Because of this many of the characteristics including the fertility behavior of the women was found to be very similar to each other.