Women’s empowerment, family planning, and social norms: an integrative review

Narottam Pradhan, Santosh Akhauri, Putul Thakur, Priyadarshini Trivedi, Sudipta Mondal, Indrajit Chaudhuri and Neetu Choudhary

Development in Practice, 2025, vol. 35, issue 5, 848-861

Abstract: Research has examined women’s empowerment in family planning behaviours. However, few studies have explicitly accommodated the role of social norms in shaping this relationship. Furthermore, the role of family planning in women’s empowerment has not been studied extensively. This study is an integrative review of empirical evidence that captures the two-way relationship between women’s empowerment and their family planning behaviours while highlighting the role of social norms. A total of 122 studies were shortlisted based on the systematic database search. The literature search included a set of coincident keywords. Studies that considered any dimension of empowerment or family planning methods were included. Results show that the two-way relationship between family planning and empowerment is significantly mediated by social norms and men’s attitudes, which had more influence than women’s values. In terms of women’s empowerment, sexual freedom and joint decision-making were found to be the strongest predictors.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/09614524.2025.2502409

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