Unravelling the interplay between economic empowerment, gender equality, and desire for additional children among married women in sub-Saharan Africa: a confirmatory factor analysis approach

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) continues to grapple with high fertility, often linked to women’s fertility desire for more children. However, this desire can be impacted by low economic empowerment and prevailing gender inequalities. Therefore, this study aimed at understanding how these two factors influence the desire for additional children in the region. This study analysed pooled weighted Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data (2015–2022) from 167,462 women across 23 SSA countries. Descriptive statistics characterised the sample and bivariate analyses explored variable relationships. Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses identified and validated latent constructs of economic empowerment and gender equality. Structural equation modelling assessed the direct and indirect effects of these constructs on women’s desire for additional children. The study revealed that 62.5% of married women in the 23 SSA countries desired additional children, with a higher desire in Western and Central Africa (68.5% and 66.8%) compared to East and Southern Africa (53.5% and 52.6%). Besides, all indicators significantly loaded onto their constructs (p < 0.001). Specifically, married women’s education attainment (β = 2.2243) and working status (β = 1.5047) strongly and positively predicted economic empowerment. Decision-making autonomy regarding healthcare (β = 1.1436), household purchases (β = 1.1353), contraceptive use (β = 0.4588), and earnings (β = 0.7937) were positively associated with gender equality. Women’s economic empowerment (-0.027, SE = 0.002, P < 0.001), household autonomy (β = -0.0805, SE = 0.0019, p < 0.001), and reproductive health autonomy (β = -0.0203, SE = 0.0022, p < 0.001) where all linked with lower desire for additional children among married women. Overall, the model revealed that both economic empowerment and gender equality exhibited marginal, yet statistically significant, positive effects on the desire for additional children (β = 0.0001 and β = 0.0004, p < 0.001), alongside a significant positive covariance between the two predictor constructs (β = 0.0252). This study has quantified the latent constructs of economic empowerment, gender equality and desire for additional children among married women in SSA. While economic empowerment and gender equality demonstrated significant positive associations, with desire for additional children, these effects were notably small in magnitude. Therefore, although it is important to enhance their economic empowerment and address gender inequalities to potentially reduce their desire for additional children, other factors specific to this region are likely just as important.