The man in his house: changing family and partnership behaviour in southern Ghana

Akinyinka Akinyoade, Universiteit Leiden

This study offers new insights into the association between gender relations and demographic behaviour in a society where general demand for male dominance is a given. Variations in marital stability is assessed, new connections between fatherhood values and male dominance values are explored, with consequences for childbearing in Ghana’s rural coastal communities. Evidence from in-depth surveys triangulated with survey data conducted in Abuesi and Brenu Akyinim indicate that re-marriage appears to be on the increase with consequences for male headship of household, birth-spacing, as well as changes in perception of value of children born to re-married couples. Gender relations are becoming more complicated than is assumed or allowed to be and its effect on reproductive behaviour is subtler than that depicted by analyses of survey data.