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WOMEN AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Population and Health
The role of women as mothers is even more widely acknowledged and powerful than the role of women as consumers, yet they do not always have control over the size of their families and the spacing of their children. When women are not given the opportunity to plan their families, they are limited in the choices that they can make in their lives.
Population programmes are not always respectful of women's reproductive rights. Rather than providing women with the information they need to make an informed choice about birth control, population programmes often require that women make decisions about birth control before they have been able to understand the benefits and dangers of the various methods.
Women, as mothers, have very specific health care needs. These are not always understood by doctors and researchers who have little information on women's health. Social norms can prevent women from getting full information about health concerns and give doctors and husbands the power to make decisions about women's health.