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Kinshasa in Transition

Women’s Education, Employment, and Fertility

After decades of tremendous growth, Kinshasa-capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo-is now the second-largest urban area in sub-Saharan Africa. And as the city has grown-from around 300,000 people in the mid-1950s to more than five million today-it has experienced seismic social, economic, and demographic changes.

In this book, David Shapiro and B. Oleko Tambashe trace the impact of these changes on the lives of women, and their findings add dramatically to the field’s limited knowledge of African demographic trends. They find that fertility has declined significantly in Kinshasa since the 1970s, and that women’s increasing access to secondary education has played a key role in this decline. Better access to education has also given women greater access to employment opportunities. And by examining the impact of such factors as economic well-being and household demographic composition on the schooling of children, Shapiro and Tambashe reveal how one generation’s fertility affects the next generation’s education.

This book will be a valuable guide for anyone who wants to understand the complex and ongoing social, demographic, economic, and developmental changes in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa.

297 pages | 29 line drawings, 62 tables | 6 x 9 | © 2003

African Studies

Sociology: Demography and Human Ecology

Women's Studies

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction and Overview
Part 1. Education, Employment, Fertility, and Mortality, 1955-1990: An Overview
1. From Leopoldville to Kinshasa
2. Education and Employment
3. Levels and Trends in Mortality and Fertility
Part 11. Socioeconomic and Proximate Determinants of Fertility
4. Ethnicity, Education, and Fertility: 1955-1990
5. Family Background and Early Life Course Transitions
6. Proximate Determinants of Fertility
7. Contraception and Abortion: A Closer Look
8. Secondary Education and Fertility Decline
Part III. Schooling, Extended-Family Solidarity, Employment in the Formal and Informal Sectors, and Migration
9. Gender, Poverty, Family Structure, and Investments in Children’s Education
10. Extended-Family Solidarity: Interhousehold
Resource Transfers in Support of Children’s Schooling and Child Fostering
11. Education and Employment in the Formal and Informal Sectors
12. Migration, Education, and Employment
Part IV. Prospects for Changes in the Future
13. Economic Crisis and Further Transitions in Education, Employment, and Fertility
Appendix
References
Index
Major Ethnic Groups in Kinshasa

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