an assessment on the impact of women’s autonomy, education and social participation on childbearing intention in sirjan city

like many developed and developing societies, iran has experienced sharp fertility declineand reached below- replacement level fertility. as women have a major role in childbearing,their empowerment and autonomy will lead to changes in their fertility behavior, and manystudies have focused on various aspects of women's autonomy and fertility. this paperexamines the relationship between women’s autonomy and fertility behavior in thesirjan city.the data is drawn from the 2011 survey that collected information from around 400 womenof reproductive ages (15-49) in the sirjan city in southeastern part of iran. the results showedthat the relationship between women’s autonomy and fertility is insignificant when othersocial and economicindicators (i.e. social participation, education and employment) arecontrolled. the results of the logistic regression analysis indicated that among all differentvariables, social participation of women and their education level are the strong determinantsof dependent variable; as childbearing intention reduces with the rise in these two variables.women’s age and children ever born are the other two important variables affectingchildbearing intentions. given the results of this study, population policies in iran in order tofacilitate childbearing for couples should provide opportunities in which women could be ableto continue their education, have their social participation as well as promoting childbearing.