The Role of Women Empowerment in the Contribution of Women to Reproductive Health Decision Making and Its Implication for New HIV Infection in Nigeria

Abstract

The importance of acknowledging the place of economic empowerment and independence and that lacking these increases women’s susceptibility to a wide range of unpleasant situations, amongst which are poverty, lack of power and the risk of STIs & HIV & AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases that poverty aggravates was stressed at so many international fora such as the Beijing conference on Women, the 1994 Cairo conference on population and development, the MDGs which later became the SDGs and a host other international and regional conferences all over the world.. In patriarchal societies gender norms related to masculinity can enable men have multiple sexual partners, putting them and their spouses at high risk of infection. Constructs of masculinity can also encourage sexual relations within spousal age differences between men and women, these relationships can be disadvantageous to women who are completely dependent on the resources of their husbands as he who pays the piper dictates the tune The study is designed to identify and explain the implication of women empowerment on their ability to negotiate safe sex and participate in reproductive decision making in their homes and it employs empirical procedures in the data collection and analyses, the objectives of the study includes identifying the relationship between empowerment and participation in reproductive decision making and sources of power in matrimonial relationships and how spouses employ access to material and economic resources in engaging in filial relationships. The study concluded that wide spousal age gaps have negative impact for women empowerment, couple communication and family planning and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS as a result of multiple sexual partnering occasioned by gender sexual discrimination. The recommendations were delayed marriage age and education and economic activity fot young girls before marriage.