Women in Africa and Latin America are reaching for better lives for their families and communities by embracing the empowerment that comes with reproductive healthcare and family planning. At a recent salon sponsored by Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, three speakers talked about the inherent instincts of women to find ways to manage the number of children they have to improve the lives of their families and their communities. What was very interesting were the ways that women were able to lead men to family planning services in traditionally male-dominated cultures by using a combination of environmental and economic actions.
The discussion started with Cleopatra and went to today's Latin America where even teenage boys describe themselves as feministas and host radio call-in shows to help educate peers about healthy sexual behaviors.
Cleopatra's birth control and the world's oldest profession, which isn't what you think it is, were the jumping off point for Robert Engelman. He is the vice president of Worldwatch Institute and author of More: Population, Nature and What Women Want.
Midwifery may be the oldest profession because walking upright forever changed the way women give birth and required the need for help to successfully deliver children. Midwives were the ob-gyn's of the time and assisted in both birth control as well as births. Women have always inherently understood the connection between pregnancy, children and well being and have actively sought ways to manage the three to produce the desired outcome. One of the most famous women leaders in history, Cleopatra, has her methods of birth control discussed in a new biography.
“Where women manage their own fertility, populations are sustainable,” said Engelman as he used the present day example of the tourism generating Bwindi National Park gorilla preserve in Uganda to show how women will make a difference. In that area of Uganda, farming villages abut the preserve and agreements have been made to allow the local residents to use some of the revenues for projects to improve their settlements.
A commonly used plan in the area is for all of the money to go for infrastructure improvements such as roads, buildings, and agricultural uses. When local women became involved, they pushed for and got a family planning clinic. The women now have cooperation from the men in family planning because they have shown how parenting can become a choice which includes how many children and when with the results being better family lives and an improved local economy.
Up Next: Latin American Feministas on the Move
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