This project for comparative field research on two communities in Mexico will try to explain the consistent relationship found in demographic studies between the formal education of women and population-level reproductive rates (of child survival and fertility) in changing societies. Hypotheses to be tested cover the skills and attitudes women acquire in school, preschool variations in family background and parental support for girl's education careers, and cultural variations in gender roles. Ethnographic and psychosocial methods will be used by investigators with native language ability in a rural and an urban setting in Mexico. This research is important because women's schooling is an important predictor of child survival and fertility in Third World countries, yet we have no good understanding of how and why female school attendance makes this apparent impact. This study will use an in-depth anthropological approach to this problem and promises to significantly advance our knowledge.
