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The more the merrier? Fertility and food insecurity among older Senegalese women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2015

IVY KODZI
IVY KODZI*
Affiliation:
Institute for Population Research, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
*
Address for correspondence: Ivy Kodzi, Institute for Population Research, Ohio State University, 1885 Neil Ave Mall, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA E-mail: ivykodzi@yahoo.com
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Abstract

The number of children women have is a critical determinant of their future wellbeing. Often, adult children confer some protection against adverse conditions in their older ages. In many sub-Saharan African societies, it is expected that older women who typically have had many children, will benefit from their investment in children. Yet it is unclear if this is really the case. Using data from the 10 per cent micro-sample of the 2002 Senegalese Population and Housing Census, this study investigates the effect of the childbearing histories of older women (aged 60–85) on the likelihood that their households experienced food insecurity in the past year. Women who had had no children and those who had ever had two or more, were not significantly different from those who had had five or more – only those who had had one child were adversely affected. Based on principles of intergenerational altruism and moral obligation, I expected that food insecurity would decrease with increases in the number of surviving children. This pattern was generally found. However, among women in the bottom 40 per cent of the wealth distribution, the relationship was, at best, weak with respect to all of the fertility variables (children ever had, living, co-resident). The benefits of high fertility seem to accrue to relatively richer women – those in the top 60 per cent of the wealth distribution. Yet among these richer women, having fewer than three children and co-resident adult children were significant risk factors of food insecurity.

Keywords

food securityfertilityolder womensub-Saharan AfricaSenegal
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 36 , Issue 8 , September 2016 , pp. 1715 - 1737
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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