Femmes, famille, fécondité. De la baisse de la fécondité à l'évolution du statut des femmes

Fertility decline is taking place in a great variety of ways in the countries of the South, and the effects of this decline on the condition of women and gender relations are far from uniform. On the basis of four national contexts? Iran, Madagascar, China and Brazil ?, the authors, demographers and sociologists, analyse the on-going processes in relation to changes in reproductive behaviour, in gender relations and, more broadly, the transformations in sociodemographical contexts. The first contribution takes account of the participation of women in the labour market in Sub-Saharan Africa and its problematic assessment.