Contraception: The Woman’s Role in Family Planning

This article examines the use of contraception among the South Sotho of South Africa and the wife’s role in the process of decisionmaking. It is based on in-depth interviews held in 1990 with 50 women from Qwaqwa (a former homeland adjacent to Lesotho). The findings indicate that it is in actual fact the husband that opposes family planning in patrilinear communities (44 percent of the respondents did not use contraception and in 68 percent of the cases this was the husband’s decision). Significant in this regard is the role of the husband’s family in the decision not to use contraception. In the cases where contraception was used, it was predominantly the women who made the decision. Changes in the loci of authority in the family which are taking place nowadays (wives are increasingly securing an independent position in the household) will undoubtedly have their impact on the decisionmaking process with regard to family planning. Bibliogr., sum. in English and Afrikaans.